Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04082 on 9 November 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.

In 2021-22 our investment in support of General Practice of £155 million (through the Primary Care Improvement Fund) demonstrates the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to the development of multi-disciplinary teams to support general practice. This investment will free up GP and GP practice staff time to focus on complex care in the community, including treating patients with long COVID. On top of this we have made additional winter funding available to Health Boards to allow the recruitment of extra Primary Care pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists and other MDT staff.

The Scottish Government has been working collaboratively with public and third sector partners to create and disseminate COVID-19-related information to asylum seekers and refugees in relevant languages and accessible formats. Given the fast-moving nature of coronavirus-related guidance, we took into consideration the lead time with translations and the danger of out-of-date messages being shared and distributed, and focused on working in partnership to create and distribute key coronavirus information to benefit the wider community.

1. The Scottish Government works closely with NHS 24 and Public Health Scotland to ensure key public health information on COVID-19 is available in 17 languages and accessible formats via the NHS Inform website, which is Scotland’s central repository for public health information.

2. In July 2021 Dari and Pashto translations were added to NHS Inform in response to the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.

3. In addition to NHS Inform, the COVID helpline provides interpreter services to support engagement with people whose first language is not English.

4. COVID-19 National Door Drops that have been sent to all homes in Scotland for Covid-19, Test and Protect and COVID-19 Vaccines and Right Care Right Place were created in key languages for asylum seekers and refugees as identified by partners.

5. We have been working in partnership with NHS Scotland and Public Health Scotland to spread the message of available translations and formats. Organisations reached include: Scottish Refugee Council; BEMIS (the national umbrella body supporting the development of the Ethnic Minorities Voluntary Sector in Scotland); NHS Lothian Minority Ethnic Inclusion Service (MEHIS); British Red Cross; Inclusion Scotland; Scottish Independent Living Coalition (SILC); Progress in Dialogue; Article 12.

6. SG and PHS have engaged with various organisations including the Scottish Refugee Council to get feedback on how to maximise COVID-19 vaccine uptake with asylum seekers and refugees, and in response to identified needs, videos, a Statement of Facts sheet and informed consent information have been developed in relevant languages to provide information about issues identified as concerns across a range of population groups in Scotland.

We have invested more than £460,000 to enable Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland to deliver its long COVID Support Service. We have raised awareness of the service through:

• The Implementation Support Note which we have developed for clinicians supporting people with long-term effects of COVID-19 and has been disseminated to all NHS Boards. This resource includes information on the support available through Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland’s long COVID Support Service and how it can be accessed.
• The Decision Support Toolkit which was developed with the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre to incorporate key information from the Implementation Support Note, including details of Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland’s long COVID Support Service, https://www.signdecisionsupport.uk/ . Available via both a web-based platform and a mobile app, the toolkit presents clinicians with current evidence and helpful recommendations on assessment, investigations and referral, planning care, management and follow up for people experiencing long-term effects of COVID-19.
• The NHS Inform website which provides information, guidance and signposting for patients experiencing long-term effects of COVID-19.
• Our marketing campaign in October and November 2021 which included a marketing toolkit sent to more than 3,000 contacts across the NHS and third sector. This marketing toolkit contained information on Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland’s long COVID Support Service.

We are committed to ensuring that this service can be easily accessed by those who wish to do so, and we will continue to work with Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland to support this as appropriate.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing clear information and support for people with long COVID. To help raise awareness of symptoms and signpost people to appropriate support, a marketing campaign ran in October and November 2021. The campaign budget was invested in: print and production of campaign posters for display in community pharmacies and GP surgeries across Scotland, language translations, social media posts and a campaign toolkit sent to 250 direct partner contacts with additional distribution of approximately 3,000 contacts.

The campaign directed people to the long COVID microsite hosted by NHS Inform, accessible at www.nhsinform.scot/long-covid . The microsite had nearly 86,000 users during the campaign period.

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.

The draft National Planning Framework (NPF4) includes a strengthened planning policy position that seeks to proactively enable the reuse of vacant and derelict land and buildings and which notes that demolition should be regarded as the least preferred option. Re-use of vacant and derelict land and buildings has multiple benefits, including contributing to climate change targets.

The draft NPF4 was laid in the Scottish Parliament in November 2021 for a period of scrutiny through to next spring. A public consultation on the draft is running until the end of March 2022 and responses are invited to help inform the final NPF4 which will form part of the development plan and therefore inform priorities in local development plans and day to day planning decision making.

The Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010 prohibits the display of tobacco related products inside retailer premises. No advertising of branded tobacco products is permitted either inside or outside a premise but stores are allowed to have generic, unbranded signs stating they sell tobacco on in-store gantries, and outside of buildings, however the latter is actively discouraged.

Any concerns around the compliance of a particular premises with Scottish law should be directed to the local authority. The Scottish Government provide funding of £1.34 million annually to councils for the enforcement of the legislation around the sale and purchase of tobacco and NVP’s. Local authority trading standards services treat the enforcement of legislation as a high priority issue.