Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has engaged with a range of sectors, including catering and hospitality representatives, promoting the benefits of effective ventilation to reduce the risk of transmission within enclosed spaces. I would encourage all sectors to review the guidance we produced on ventilation, as this contains useful information and assets which could easily be incorporated within training courses.

The guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-ventilation-guidance/

We continue to engage with sectors and review this guidance as new evidence emerges regarding how these systems can prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other airborne viruses.

We will be removing the travel restrictions which are currently in place in relation to travel between Scotland and Manchester, Bolton and Salford. These restrictions are being removed due to changes in the epidemiological position for those areas. Regulations amending the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 will be made today and will take effect on 30 June 2021. Restrictions between Scotland and Blackburn with Darwen will remain in place.

The Scottish Government welcome the Audit Scotland report, and we are pleased that it recognised the swift actions of Scotland’s public sector partners to respond to the significant and unprecedented challenges presented by Covid-19. The Scottish Government agrees with Audit Scotland that we need to learn from this pandemic and bring that learning both into planning for future pandemics, and into our long term procurement strategy. This work is already underway. Officials are working across the public sector including with the NHS to learn the lessons and take them into future PPE procurement.

To address environmental concerns surrounding PPE, the Scottish Government has funded a Small Business Research Initiative £310,000, with Transport Scotland providing additional funding, to assess and evaluate prospective reusable PPE solutions and technologies to assist in decontaminating PPE. This initiative, led by NHS Tayside on behalf of the Scottish Government, supports companies to develop more environmentally-friendly PPE by providing funding to enable them to undertake vital research and development of their prospective solutions.

The Scottish Government has also established a PPE Innovation Working Group with partners across Scotland. The purpose of this Group is to oversee the implementation of positive changes to the provision of clinical PPE in Scotland. As part of this work, the Group will consider potential work streams and opportunities which surround the environmental impact of PPE and how manufacturers with innovative PPE solutions can better collaborate with NHS Scotland in the future.

Any consultation on mandatory calorie labelling for food and drink purchased out of home would consider all relevant matters.

Amending Regulations were made to the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 today.

These Regulations amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020.

These Regulations remove the travel restrictions which are currently in place in relation to travel between Scotland and Manchester, Bolton and Salford. These restrictions are being removed due to changes in the epidemiological position for those areas. These changes will take effect on 30 June 2021.

The Regulations have been published at www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ssi/2021/255 .

The online vaccine booking portal closed on 11 June.

The online portal was part of the Scottish Government’s measures to widen the accessibility of vaccine appointments, and was extended for another week, on top of the original three week window. 40% of the young people aged 18-29 who were still to be vaccinated, self-registered on our online portal.

Those who did not register online, are being scheduled for an appointment on the system, and letters are coming out over this week and next. However, to give advanced sight of appointments online, we are launching an appointment checker on NHS Inform to help people view their pending appointments. This will help those people, like students, who may have moved away from their registered GP term time address. This will also help them view their offered appointment earlier and chose to reschedule to fit with their work and life.

The National Vaccination Scheduling System (NVSS) has successfully appointed millions of Scottish citizens while achieving exceptionally high uptake rates this demonstrates a massive success for a system built from scratch in the space of 8 weeks.

Our intention has always been to evolve and continually enhance the NVSS. As the programme has engaged with younger cohorts it has become evident a digital first online booking approach would be beneficial. The programme team are in the process of designing an online booking system for the autumn/winter Flu vaccinations.

The Scottish Government has received no assurance from the UK Government that the MV Pentalina or MV Alfred, are safe to operate on ferry routes in Scotland. All vessels are required to meet all relevant regulatory requirements as set out by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) and any other regulatory authority.

CalMac Ferries Ltd will apply its standard ticketing arrangements and fares for whatever route the MV Pentalina is operating on.

While our aim is to release information whenever possible, due to the commercially sensitive nature of the information in this instance, we are unable to disclose the findings of the report.

The £1,500 initially awarded to Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Drivers was based on estimates of what we could afford to pay at the time the Fund was launched in January 2021 based on the number of taxi and private hire vehicle drivers licensed in Scotland and the availability of funding. As there is not an equivalent scheme run by the UK Government in England we have received no direct consequential funding to support taxi and private hire drivers, and instead have prioritised funding for this area from wider business support funding. Following the allocation of further consequentials we have set aside an additional £62 million to support the sector as part of which we are paying another £1,500 grant to taxi and private hire vehicle drivers who received the initial payment.