Chamber and committees

In 2021-22, local authorities have been allocated an annual share of £23.5 million for homelessness prevention and response measures and an annual share of £8 million to support the implementation of rapid rehousing transition plans. The Scottish Government has also offered a range of non-financial support. This includes clarifying the process for funding to build new accommodation, dedicated engagement with local authorities facing the most significant challenges and hosting an event that brought all Scottish local authorities together to share good practice to support compliance with the Order.

Recent engagement has shown that all local authorities are making positive progress towards reducing the use of unsuitable accommodation. The Scottish Government will continue to work with local authorities to sustain this progress and identify support to help overcome barriers.

No meeting took place between the First Minister or Scottish Government officials and former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney during COP26.

The Hydrogen Economy Cluster will raise awareness of the opportunities in the hydrogen economy, support a Team Scotland approach and provide practical steps to help companies realise opportunities in hydrogen and associated low-carbon markets. The cluster will be pan-Scotland and will play a key role in helping the energy and oil and gas supply chain move into hydrogen production, distribution and/or key areas of hydrogen demand such as transport and low-carbon heat.

Hydrogen policy officials are currently working with the Enterprise Agencies on the development of the Hydrogen Economy Cluster and further details will be available in 2022.

Public Heath Scotland publish a weekly COVID-19 statistical report every Wednesday which includes this information. As at 15 November 2021 the COVID Status app had been downloaded over 1.5 million. It is important to note a single user may choose to download the App on multiple devices so this total figure does not represent unique individuals.

As we do not track individual’s use of their certificates, it is not possible to indicate how many people have used their certificate.

For part’s (b) and (c), the Deputy First Minister wrote to the Covid-19 Recovery Committee setting out the information requested in detail. This can be accessed on the Scottish Parliament website here .

The £10m Scottish Hydrogen Innovation Fund is part of the Scottish Government’s Emerging Energy Technologies Fund. It aims to support Scottish researchers and innovators to drive technological progress and advance innovation to improve the cost-competitiveness of renewable hydrogen produced in Scotland. It will support Scottish companies to benefit from and contribute to the global research and innovation network through international collaboration.

Hydrogen policy officials are currently finalising the development of the Scottish Hydrogen Innovation Fund and have invited views from stakeholders on the scope of this Fund.

Views can be provided at https://consult.gov.scot/energy-and-climate-change-directorate/hydrogen-action-plan/ .

Further details will be provided in early 2022 as part of the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund.

We published an updated evidence paper on the Covid 19 status certification scheme on Friday 19 November 2021.

Public Heath Scotland also publish a weekly COVID-19 statistical report which includes the number of times the NHS Scotland COVID Status App has been downloaded. As at 15 November 2021 this is 1.5 million times. The statistical information for the app is provided by Apple and Google and we do not receive a breakdown by age or demographic.

The commitment to recruit 800 additional GPs is based on GP headcount and we remain on track to meet that commitment by 2027 as originally set out.

We have taken a number of actions to fulfil this commitment, including increasing the number of medical places at universities, and taking steps to encourage medical graduates to choose general practice. To that end, between 2015-16 and 2021-22 the Scottish Government will have increased the annual intake of medical places in Scottish universities from 848 to 1117 (269 places, a 32% increase). The majority of these new places are focused on general practice.

By increasing the amount of undergraduate curriculum that is delivered in general practice to 25%. We are confident increased exposure to general practice will encourage more students to train as GPs. With an increase of 89 GPs in 2019-20 we are now confident we are starting to see the positive impact of these actions.

Test and Protect’s contact tracing service can only identify close contacts based on the information provided by people who have tested positive, and we are grateful to everyone that reports all their contacts when engaging with the contact tracing system. We continue to ask people to engage with the service by phone or by completing the online tracing form, to provide as much information as possible about their close contacts during the infectious period. This ensures that the right public health advice can be offered to close contacts to cut off chains of virus transmission in the community.

We have introduced a range of measures, including increased use of digital and SMS communications and shortened call scripts for index case interviews, to ensure the contact tracing system continues to trace the contacts of people with Coronavirus and ensure they are given the right public health advice as quickly as possible, even when case numbers rise substantially. All decisions in relation to operational delivery of the contact tracing system have made in line with public health advice, including the continued prioritisation of higher risk cases. A combination of these changes is likely to have affected the average number of close contacts reported per case.

We published an updated evidence paper on the Covid-19 status certification scheme on Friday 19 November 2021.

Ministers and officials are in regular contact with Police Scotland and other stakeholders on a range of issues associated with the COVID-19 Status Certification scheme, which includes but not limited to security of the certification.

The app has a number of counter fraud elements built in. This includes a secure QR code, visual motion elements including a ‘shimmer’ icon, and a clock showing the current time which protects against screenshots being presented as certificates. In addition, we have a secure identification verification process.

Although not a requirement for business to use, we also encourage use of the NHS Scotland Covid Check App as it is specifically designed to verify the authenticity of a certificate by checking that the QR code was issued by a trusted authority (e.g. NHS Scotland, or any of the countries linked to the EU Digital Covid Certificate).