Chamber and committees

Two sets of regulations amending the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 were made today.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment (No.6) Regulations 2021 amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (“the principal regulations”).

These Amendment Regulations introduce physical distancing requirements in hospitality and indoor leisure premises, requirements for table service and also introduce a capacity limit for live events. These regulations provide the following requirements;

• Physical distancing – a requirement to take measures to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that a distance of 1 metre is maintained between people in or waiting to enter hospitality and leisure premises and that only enough people are admitted to the premises to allow the 1 metre distance to be maintained.
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• Table service - a requirement for table service in premises where alcohol is sold for consumption on the premises, and that the customer must remain seated whilst consuming food and drink on the premises.
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• Capacity limit for live events - a requirement that live events held indoors and outdoors do not exceed capacity limits set in the regulations - 100 people at indoor standing events, 200 people at indoor seated events and 500 people at outdoor events (whether seated or standing).

The requirements in relation to capacity limits at live events will take effect at 5.00 a.m. on 26 December and the requirements in relation to physical distancing and table service will take effect at 5.00 a.m. on 27 December.

These regulations have been published at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ssi/2021/496

The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment (No.7) Regulations 2021 also amend the principal regulation and will take effect at 5.00 a.m. on 27 December 2021.

These Amendment Regulations have the effect of closing nightclubs, dance halls or discotheque premises from 5.00 a.m. on 27 December 2021. It would remain open to these businesses to operate the premises with distancing and table service, rather than as a nightclub, dance hall or discotheque.

These regulations have been published at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ssi/2021/497

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05057 on 23 December 2021. 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.

At the heart of our licensing scheme is a set of mandatory standards which will help to protect the safety of guests and neighbours in short-term lets across Scotland. Provided an operator continues to comply with their licence conditions, which will often just be the mandatory safety conditions, their licence would normally be renewed. As the licensing scheme requires licence holders to comply with mandatory safety conditions, and they cannot continue to operate if they do not, it is reasonable to assume that lenders will have regard to this as part of their due diligence, alongside other considerations such as turnover and profitability.

The 2022-23 Scottish Budget delivers record funding of £18 billion for the health portfolio to support our vital health and care services, including those services that are supporting the needs of people living with long COVID, chronic fatigue syndromes and chronic pain.

We have published ‘Scotland's long COVID service’, which sets out our approach and 16 commitments to improve care and support for people with long COVID in Scotland.

In addition, our £10million ‘long COVID Support Fund’ will provide NHS Boards with additional resource to respond in a flexible and tailored manner to the needs of people with long COVID.

In light of the final National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ME/CFS being published, we are pleased to confirm that a formal stakeholder consultation project will begin in early 2022. The main focus of this is to work collaboratively with key stakeholders towards implementing the recommendations within these guidelines, in Scotland.

We are continuing to work with Health Boards to ensure the remobilisation of appropriate pain management support as quickly and as safely as possible. As part of this we providing funding to enhance the capacity of pain management care through the Chronic Pain Winter Support Fund. We will shortly announce the outcome of this funding call. The projects we fund will boost the support available for people with chronic pain at the national and local level to help them maintain their health and wellbeing over the months ahead.

10,195 hectares of new woodland has be planted in Scotland since 21 st January 2021. The area that was planted as (a) coniferous, (b) broadleaved, (c) native and (d) non-native is shown in Table 1. This balance of planting is in line with SG targets.

The Learning Estate Investment Programme has made significant progress since the first projects were announced in September 2019, with projects in construction and in development representing a £1.2bn investment in the learning estate.

The Scottish Government intend to announce the projects that will form part of Phase 3 of the programme within the next 12 months. We will write to local authorities seeking investment proposals in 2022 and in the meantime we will work with local government to agree the development programme timeline.

Claims of bullying behaviour by civil servants are untrue. All members of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain (NACCP) are free to make whatever contribution they wish to discussions.

All committee members are required to abide by the behaviours set out in the Terms of Reference, including the values of respect and mutual collaboration to agree recommendations to help improve care for people with chronic pain. If these behaviours and values were not met, this would be taken very seriously and addressed.

As at December 2021 four representatives of the Chronic Pain Patient Reference Group attending the NACCP had written to officials to resign their positions. Two resignations took place in June 2021, with one in each of October and November 2021. It would not be appropriate to divulge the specific reasons cited by each individual, however I am clear that officials acted on the relevant feedback provided.

For example, as a result we are currently reviewing existing stakeholder engagement processes and structures around our work on chronic pain, including the role of the NACCP. The outcome of this work is intended to ensure meaningful engagement to support the future delivery and implementation of the Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery following completion of the current public consultation.

Scottish Forestry has published a breakdown, by local authority area, of new woodland creation planted in the last full financial year.

In developing proposals for the regulation of short-term lets, the Scottish Government has conducted three public consultations. Our most recent consultation closed on 13 August 2021, and we received 1,026 responses.

We carefully considered suggestions for changes to the legislation from working group members, and stakeholders responding to our third consultation, including the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers. The changes set out in the consultation report align with the policy objectives of ensuring all short-term lets comply with basic safety requirements, without undermining protections for guests, neighbours and local communities. These include significant and pragmatic changes in response to concerns from the tourism sector, such as the removal of overprovision and stronger guidance on fees.

We know that it will take time and a series of targeted actions to build back capacity and redesign patient pathways to bring treatment times back within targets for orthopaedic patients.

As part of the NHS Recovery Plan , which is backed by an overall investment of £1 billion, the Scottish Government is investing over £400 million to deliver 10 National Treatment Centres (NTCs) which will create protected elective capacity for an additional 40,000 surgeries and procedures across 12 specialties per year. The first of these opened at the Golden Jubilee in November 2020 and next three NTCs are due to open in NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley and NHS Highland in 2022. These centres will be crucial to increasing orthopaedic capacity, which will in turn reduce the length of time patients are waiting for treatment.

Services are also embracing new ways of working, including virtual clinics and Active Clinical Referral Triage, which will support shorter time to diagnosis and treatment and continue to ensure patients receive the appropriate advice and support.