Chamber and committees

Stock keeping arrangements related to Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) are a matter for industry to determine; our Regulations do not mandate a separate Scottish label or barcode for in-scope containers.

We are supporting the National Advisory Committee on Stroke to develop a progressive stroke pathway document which will set out the vision for what stroke services across Scotland should deliver across the whole patient pathway, including access to stroke rehabilitation, and access to support for people who have experienced a stroke.

Scottish Government will work closely with the Stroke Improvement Programme Team and stakeholders throughout 2022 to develop an implementation plan to deliver the vision set out in this document.

We will continue to take steps to introduce a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service in Scotland. A Scotland wide service is expected to be operational by 2023.

Our new air quality strategy 'Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 - Towards a Better Place for Everyone' sets out a series of actions intended to deliver further air quality improvements over the period to 2026. Amongst these actions are several which focus on reducing emissions from domestic fuel combustion including work with local government and SEPA to consider revision of the Clean Air Act 1993.

An expert working group, which met for the first time in January 2022, has been established to advise the Government on taking forward these actions. Further information will be made available as this work proceeds.

The available records of published Road Orders details our understanding of when the following sections of A9 dual carriageways were opened:

(a) May 1979 to May 1997

Over the course of this parliament, we are working to increase overall residential rehabilitation capacity by 50%, which is an increase from 425 beds to 650 beds. We aim to increase the number of publicly funded residential rehabilitation placements by more than 300 per cent so that, by 2026, at least 1,000 people every year are publicly funded for their rehab placement.

In addition to a £13.5 million uplift to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP), we have provided £18 million so far over the next five years to support the development of several new residential rehab projects through the Residential Rehabilitation Rapid Capacity Programme. We recognise that there are structural differences around funding and availability of residential services in different parts of the country, but we are working to address this by exploring options around regional and national commissioning of residential rehabilitation placements.

While it is the role and responsibility of local ADPs to assess and allocate placements we are committed to increasing transparency and accountability for these services. This is why we have tasked Public Health Scotland with producing a quarterly report on funded placements. The next report will be published April 2022 and will cover the period of October to December 2021.

We recently published a suite of reports on the current pathways into, through and out of residential rehabilitation. We will be working closely with ADPs to aid the development of clear pathways into residential rehabilitation, which will facilitate an increase to publicly funded placements across the country.

The Scottish Government will invest £60 million to renew play parks in Scotland, so children have access to high-quality outdoor play in their own communities. This funding is for public, free-to-access parks and will be distributed to local authorities over the course of this parliamentary term.

The renewal of play parks builds on our commitment to improve outdoor play opportunities for all children and families and to realise our ambition to make Scotland the best place to grow up.

Local authorities have an existing responsibility to maintain play parks that serve their communities and this investment provides a boost in funding to accelerate local plans and improve play experiences for all children in Scotland. We have already committed £10 million since May 2021 with a further £50 million to come in this parliamentary term.

South Lanarkshire Council received £298,000 funding in 2021-22 and will receive £296,000 in 2022-23. We have worked constructively with COSLA on the first two years of funding and will continue that work to agree the allocation of the remainder of the funding.

As of 28 February, general population self-isolation guidance states that if you test positive, you should pause routine LFD testing for 28 days after self-isolating. Count the 28 days from the day your symptoms started, or the date of your positive test if had no symptoms. If you are identified as a close contact during this time, you do not need to test or self-isolate as long as you do not have any new symptoms, regardless of vaccination status. If you develop new symptoms, self-isolate and book a PCR test.

Throughout the pandemic, the Scottish Government has kept self-isolation policy under review in line with the most up to date scientific evidence and clinical advice. We continue to balance the need to dampen transmission of the virus whilst limiting the impact on the economy and critical public services.

The number of confirmed strokes discharged during 2021 showing total length of stay and length of stay in a stroke unit is in the following table.

For some of the figures, the length of stay in the stroke unit are longer compared to stay in the audit. The patient may have completed the stroke part of their journey, but they did not have a discharge plan, so would be discharged from the audit. However, they are still in the stroke unit, for example if they have another condition that is more important than stroke.

The self-isolation exemption guidance for health and social care staff is based on the latest clinical and public health evidence and advice, and has been updated on a regular basis as we learn more about new variants, transmission and severity of illness from COVID-19. Clinical advisors within Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) provided their expert advice to this guidance. For more information on this advice you can visit the latest PHS guidance for Health Protection Teams.

It is worth noting that as of 28 February this exemption does apply to the general population. Self-isolation guidance states that if you test positive, you should pause routine LFD testing for 28 days after self-isolating. Count the 28 days from the day your symptoms started, or the date of your positive test if had no symptoms. If you are identified as a close contact during this time, you do not need to test or self-isolate as long as you do not have any new symptoms, regardless of vaccination status. If you develop new symptoms, self-isolate and book a PCR test.

Participation of small producers is vital to the success of the scheme and we believe we have taken their needs into consideration in designing DRS.

We have consulted extensively with businesses of all sizes that will be affected by the implementation of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme. We are not aware that any producers have decided to cease doing business in Scotland, although we are aware that some have expressed concerns about whether they will continue to sell their products in Scotland.

This is one of the reasons why we have applied a de minimis for the SEPA registration fee. This will remove a cost for businesses operating below the current VAT threshold, benefiting around 1,600 of the more than 4,000 anticipated producers selling into the Scottish market