Chamber and committees

At present we are awaiting Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice on whether all those aged 12 to 15, and all 16 and 17 year olds should be offered COVID-19 vaccination – and once we have this we will be preparing policy guidance as to how we will operationalise this for Scotland. No 16-17 year olds outwith the previously identified JCVI priority groups will have vaccination prior to the pending JCVI advice.

The OCTAVE trial funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) is a collaborative project involving the Universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Oxford, Liverpool, Imperial College London and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. This research work is investigating the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines being used in the UK in 2021 in up to 5,000 people from certain clinically at-risk patient groups who have impaired immune system function through underlying disease or drug treatment.

Further information is available here:

• Vaccine responses studied in patients with impaired immune systems – UKRI
• University of Glasgow - Research - Coronavirus research - OCTAVE to study vaccine responses in patients with impaired immune systems .

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) constantly review all published and unpublished data to inform vaccination policy recommendation. The JCVI have reviewed data already on this topic and will do so in an on-going basis.

On 15 June 2021, the Advisory Sub-group for Education and Children’s Issues provided advice on whether groups of parents should be permitted to attend ELC settings for outdoor events such as nursery graduations. Their advice was that groups of parents and carers should not attend end-of-year events in Early Learning and Childcare settings, whether indoors or outdoors. This was a carefully considered decision that weighed up all of the risks involved to safeguard public health.

In relation to the Fan Zone Scottish Ministers have undertaken significant consultation with public health officials and clinicians who have provided advice throughout development of Glasgow City Council’s proposal. The Fan Zone provides an outdoor, highly regulated space for fans to watch the tournament. Although there will be up to 3,000 people in attendance per session, this is in a large, outdoor space with normal capacity for up to 80,000 people. Necessary physical distancing and hygiene measures are in place. In addition, there is comprehensive stewarding, cleaning and contact tracing provisions in place and everyone attending are encouraged to take a lateral flow test prior to the event. Rapid lateral flow test kits are being mailed to all visitors to the Glasgow Fan Zone. This move is part of a series of measures to help reduce the risk of transmission before and after the event.

The Scottish Government is considering funding arrangements for student allied health professions as part of the ongoing Allied Health Professions Education review.

The Scottish Government continue to meet and work collaboratively with the recognised representative body for community pharmacy contractors in Scotland, Community Pharmacy Scotland.

Discussions have included the pharmacy networks response to the COVID-19 pandemic, additional support provided to the community pharmacy teams in providing a safe working environment and access to mental health and wellbeing support. The delivery of current and development of future pharmaceutical care service to support the NHS recovery from the pandemic and the impact of the pandemic to the financial sustainability of pharmacy network and the Scottish Drug Tariff.

Officials have also met with NHS Board Directors of Pharmacy to discuss the provision of pharmaceutical care services.

The Turing Scheme is currently signposted on the Scottish Government mygov.scot public services website, as well as on the website for the Scottish Funding Council.

Any action to promote the Turing Scheme will be for local authorities themselves to decide and report on.

It is the Scottish Government’s position that the UK Government’s Turing Scheme is not fit for purpose. It is a replacement scheme, which cannot match the breadth and scope of Erasmus+. With funding only guaranteed for one year, no provision for inward mobility to the UK, and no support being offered for adult education and youth work, Turing will see support for our most disadvantaged learners cut, and opportunities for our students, staff and young people reduced.

We will continue to engage with the UK Government to ensure Turing better reflect the needs of Scotland.

The financial support we have made available to businesses has, in the main, been predicated on the restrictions in place on specific businesses through legislation agreed by the Scottish Parliament rather than on sectoral classifications. Businesses were grouped by sectoral classification for the purposes of distributing the January Top up Grant and the Business Restart Grant but these grants were similarly awarded based on the impact of Regulations.

Eligibility for support can be found on the Scottish Government’s website including those businesses classified as Retail, Hospitality and Leisure businesses for the purposes of determining these top up payments. As Kennels and Catteries were not required to close or subject to any specific legislative restrictions on their operations, they were not eligible for support through the Strategic Framework Business Fund or associated schemes.

We did, however, set up the £120 million Local Authority Discretionary Fund specifically to support those businesses which were financially impacted due to COVID but did not qualify for other forms of financial support.

The level of capital investment in digital infrastructure in each financial year since 2015-16 is provided in the following table:

Ferguson Marine have strong links with the local college and have a thriving apprentice community. The yard currently have five apprentices who will complete their training this summer, and a further twenty four who will shortly be moving up into their second year.

The 2021 apprentice recruitment process is also underway, aimed at recruiting fifteen new apprentices for September 2021. The yard are also considering a Foundation Apprentice programme, and potentially taking apprentices into non-technical disciplines such as Finance and Human Resources.

We welcome the publication of The Change Programme, which sets out what needs to happen over the next year to ensure Scotland keeps its Promise to improve the lives of children and young people in or on the edges of care.

I wrote an open letter to Fiona Duncan, Chair of The Promise Scotland, setting out the Scottish Government’s response to the publication of The Change Programme. A copy of the letter can be found here .

We recognise that there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure full implementation of The Promise by 2030 and we will continue to work with The Promise Scotland, Local Authorities, partners, families, children and young people to deliver the ambition of making Scotland the best place to grow up where every child feels loved, safe, respected and able to reach their full potential. We will #KeepThePromise.