Chamber and committees

As required under the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002, the scheme of charges will be set by Scottish Water’s Board, with approval from the independent economic regulator the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS). The scheme is subject to the cap across the 2021-27 period (CPI+2%) imposed by WICS’s Final Determination of charges and must be consistent with meeting the Ministerial Objectives.

Scottish Water’s Board is responsible for setting charge levels with approval from the Water Industry Commission for Scotland. Scottish Water takes both maintaining critical services, and affordability, into account when setting charges.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting people facing issues paying their water bills. The maximum discount for the water charges reduction scheme (available to households which are in receipt of council tax reduction) has increased to 35% - up from 25% and I refer the member to the answer to S6W-06329 on 10 March 2022 for further information on measures to assist domestic customers.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The regulations for foods for special medical purposes are one of the categories covered by the foods for specific groups legislation. Retained Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 on Foods for Specific Groups replaced the former Foods for Particular Nutritional Uses approach and begun a new EU phased process to review and update the composition and labelling for each category. As part of this process, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/128 was introduced and has applied to businesses since 2019.

This, now retained Regulation, lays out the compositional, labelling and notification requirements of foods for special medical purposes. These foods are a category of Foods for Specific Groups , specially processed or formulated and intended for the dietary management of patients and to be used under medical supervision.

These foods are intended for the exclusive or partial feeding of patients with a limited, impaired or disturbed capacity to take, digest, absorb, metabolise or excrete ordinary foodstuffs or certain nutrients contained therein or metabolites. They are also intended for use by patients with other medically-determined nutrient requirements, whose dietary management cannot be achieved only by modification of the normal diet, by other foods for particular nutritional uses, or by a combination of the two.

The powers to enforce the requirements in Scotland are contained within The Foods for Specific Groups (Scotland) Regulations 2016 (as amended).

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation and improvement of Nature Networks across Scotland.

Nature Networks will be developed and delivered through local partnerships, and will support ecological connectivity within and between National Parks, Protected Areas, and other biodiversity-rich areas through the creation of habitat corridors and ‘stepping stones’. To be effective, Nature Networks will require development and management over the long term. We are therefore working with NatureScot and other delivery partners to develop a co-design and delivery process.

Nature Networks will be a crucial mechanism to deliver the vision set out in our new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and will form a key plank of the associated Delivery Plan. Our approach will take into account the wider policy framework at national, regional and local levels. Regional Land Use Partnerships are being piloted across five areas of Scotland to test inclusive approaches that facilitate collaboration at a regional level. They are looking to take a natural capital approach to maximising the contribution that our land makes in addressing the twin nature and climate crises. In developing our approach to nature networks we are considering how RLUPs can form a part of delivery. Nature networks have been embedded within the draft NPF4, to ensure that nature has the space to adapt to Scotland’s changing climate through linking areas which are important for biodiversity in urban, peri-urban and rural settings.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07621 on 25 April 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Neither the Scottish Government or Public Health Scotland are able to quantify how many routine vaccine doses have been disposed of due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine wastage can be attributed to other factors and therefore delineation of contributing factors is not possible.

The Seasonal Flu Vaccination Programme is a well established programme that runs annually (usually between October – March each year), for which vaccine is procured nationally for the eligible groups. Every effort is made to minimise wastage, taking into account previous years’ vaccination uptake, whilst ensuring that sufficient stock is procured to support optimum uptake rates, and protect those most at risk of flu. During the pandemic, in 2020-21 and 2021-22 the flu programme has continued to record very good uptake across the eligible cohorts.

The routine childhood immunisation programmes have continued in Scotland throughout the COVID-19 pandemic for children of all ages.

Uptake for vaccines given to children aged under one year has remained consistently high in Scotland. Statistics on childhood immunisations are published quarterly by Public Health Scotland, which show that around 96% of children had received each routine immunisation by the time they were 12 months of age in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Uptake of the rotavirus vaccination by 12 months of age increased during the pandemic, from 93.2% in 2019 to 94.2% in 2021. Uptake of the first dose of MMR by the age of 24 months also increased, rising from 94% in 2019 to 94.4% in 2021.

The continued high uptake of childhood immunisations is a testament to the hard work and commitment of the NHS and the recognition of the benefits of vaccination.

There are no jobs related to the National Care Service which are being recruited by Scotland Excel at this time.

From 18 April, we are no longer asking the general public to test themselves regularly if they are asymptomatic. This change is possible because of the progress we have made in our ability to protect Scotland’s population from the most severe harms of COVID-19 through our widespread vaccination coverage and access to new Covid treatments.

Covid testing in hospital settings for emergency admissions and elective patients will continue to be available, helping to protect vulnerable individuals in high risk settings and ensuring patients receive the most effective treatment.

Health and social care workers should continue to test themselves regularly to reduce the risk of spread of infection in higher risk settings; as should care home and hospital visitors. All ongoing testing in higher risk settings will be kept under regular clinical review.

Nine projects were funded through the Chief Scientist Office Long-term effects of COVID-19 funding call Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

6 month progress reports have been received for all 9 projects. On 31 March 2022 the Chief Scientist Office hosted a virtual symposium at which the lead investigators of each of the 9 projects presented the results obtained to date.

In line with Chief Scientist Office policy final project reports will be published on the CSO website.