Chamber and committees

As set out in the draft Framework for Tax, which only recently closed for consultation on 26 October, the Scottish Government is committed to exploring the introduction of a digital sales tax in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is working with retail businesses, trade unions, academia, public sector and trade organisations to develop a Retail Strategy that will enable the retail sector in Scotland to play its part in creating a fairer, greener and stronger Scotland. The Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth Building made a statement to Scottish Parliament on 26 October confirming that the Retail Strategy will be published later this year.

The Scottish Government provides various grant funding each year to support and expand allotments and community growing groups in Scotland.

Scottish Government community funds, including Climate Challenge Fund, Climate Challenge Asset Fund and Investing in Communities Fund more broadly support a wide range of community growing and community garden projects.

The Scottish Government provided funding through the Community Growing Fund which was a grant scheme for the years 2019-2020 and 2020-21, providing a total of £80,000 to local community growing groups public bodies and third sector organisations.

The Scottish Government has made more than £9 million available to Health Boards this year for diagnostic imaging and is currently supporting additional X-ray appointments during evenings and at weekends. This service is being delivered while maintaining patient safety and flow through departments, as well as preserving infection prevention control measures at all times.

Moving forward we have recently published the NHS Recovery Plan, which is backed by more than £1 billion of investment and aims to improve service delivery and increase capacity, in order to tackle the regrettable backlogs that have emerged as a result of the pandemic.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained directly from Health Boards.

I recognise that there are now a number of apps supporting the Covid response in Scotland, however none of the pre-existing apps (e.g. Protect Scotland) offered the ability to provide secure, authenticated access to an individual’s health record. For this reason, a separate app was required.

Officials also explored whether it was possible to extend the use of the existing NHS App from England – where people in England can access their Covid Status – into Scotland. However, the NHS App was originally designed for a very different purpose, it is linked to GP practices in England and requires use of the separate NHS Login which only exists in England and Wales. In discussion with NHS Digital it became clear it was not a feasible option. This is because the timescales involved in joining the NHS App, coupled with the fact Scotland holds its vaccination data in a different way to England and would mean we would lose control over our own scheme.

People in Wales cannot use the NHS App either, they are currently limited to the shared England/Wales online portal accessible with an NHS Login.

Whilst the certificates that are in use in Scotland have been designed to the same international standards as the rest of the UK, and our paper certificates all follow the same template in the UK to ensure consistency, it is appropriate that we design a scheme that is right for Scotland, works in our context, and offers us the flexibility to adapt to our changing circumstances.

Scottish Government officials have a weekly call with NHS Tayside’s Cancer Team to track all patients on an urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) pathway and update on service delivery, including workforce.

To support Cancer and Diagnostic services the Scottish Government has invested £10 million to support cancer services during and beyond the pandemic. This will support increased access to cancer diagnostics and staffing. A further £9 million will also be allocated this year to support diagnostic imaging capacity. We have also invested in mobile units located in NHS Highland and NHS Tayside to increase capacity.

On top of the £1.9 billion provided to support COVID pressures in health and care this year, as set out in the statement, the £300 million represents additional investment to specifically support winter pressures.

This is funded from health and social care consequentials.

When making the difficult decision to suspend any non-urgent elective surgery, Health Boards are following local decision making on an daily and weekly basis, dependant on where the most pressures are ensuring urgent elective and Cancer surgery continues.

Where there are any changes being made to a patients treatment plan we expect discussions to take place between patient and clinician. The Clinical Prioritisation Framework is being used by Health Boards to ensure that patients with the greatest clinical need are treated first.

To support elective activity mutual aid is being sought between Health Boards and the NHS Golden Jubilee are supporting various Boards across Scotland undertaking Cancer, Ophthalmology and Cardiology services.

Moving forward we have published our NHS Recovery Plan. Recovery focusses on alternatives pathways of care that allow people to be treated more quickly closer to home and also delivers long term sustainability. The plan is backed by more than £1 billion of investment over the next five years.

As set out in the announcement, the £300 million is both additional and recurring investment, demonstrating Scottish Government’s commitment to enabling longer term planning, particularly on workforce, to ensure a well-supported and resilient health and social care system.

Further detail on planned expenditure will be determined and set out in the forthcoming 2022-23 Scottish Budget. The 2022-23 Scottish Budget will be published on 9 December.