Chamber and committees

There were 5,902 tonnes of plastic waste produced from the construction and demolition sector in 2018 in Scotland. Waste (from all sources) (sepa.org.uk)

UK official waste figures for Construction and Demolition show that plastic waste is around 0.05% of the total waste stream. The percentage is similar in Scotland.

Zero Waste Scotland has taken a variety of actions to tackle waste in the construction and demolition sector. In 2020-2021, Zero Waste Scotland undertook a packaging project with national housebuilders to drive down the consumption of packaging waste, including plastics, on site.

In 2020-2021, Zero Waste Scotland also commissioned the development of a methodology to measure the true cost of waste on a construction site. Testing this methodology on a new build housing site, 14% of the waste was identified as plastics.

Zero Waste Scotland provides a range of support and advice to help the Construction and Demolition sector to be more circular Circular Construction | Zero Waste Scotland . In 2021-2022 Zero Waste Scotland will be working with the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) on the development of a national Onsite Best Practice Guide.

ScotRail led maintenance, overhaul and repair works are carried out in Scotland at their own maintenance depots in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness.

Where specialist repairs are required ScotRail utilise local facilities such as Brodie Engineering in Kilmarnock and Assenta Rail in Hamilton, however ScotRail engage with the wider market to ensure a value for money procurement exercise is conducted.

Train owners may engage with the wider UK market and decide on where their heavy maintenance contracts are awarded but ScotRail does not decide this. The following train owner led workstreams have been sent out of Scotland over the last 2 years. As these works have not been led by ScotRail, the commercial value of these works is unable to be confirmed:-

• Class 156 Refurbishment. 15 units at Landore, Wales.
• Class 170 C6 Overhaul. 17 units at Crewe.
  

During the charter of the MV Arrow, Seatruck Ferries Ltd, the owner of the vessel, will be responsible for crew rostering as the crew are employed by them and not CalMac Ferries Ltd.

The Scottish Government’s Grassroots Music Venues Stabilisation Fund (GMVSF) provided grassroots live music venues with emergency funds to help address the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and prevent closure. In total, £6.2 million of support was awarded to 85 venues throughout Scotland through two rounds of the GMVSF.

The recipients of the first round of GMVSF funding, awarded in September 2020, can be found here, broken down by (a) venue and (b) amount received: https://www.creativescotland.com/what-we-do/latest-news/archive/2020/09/funds-reach-grassroots-music-venues

The recipients of the second round of GMVSF funding, awarded in February 2021, can be found here, broken down by (a) venue and (b) amount received:

https://www.creativescotland.com/what-we-do/latest-news/archive/2021/02/funds-reach-grassroots-music-venues

There are currently 49 members of Scottish government staff in specific COP26 posts, with 11 further specific posts under recruitment. A wide range of other staff members across the Scottish Government contribute a percentage of their time to working on COP26.

Statistics on the number of patients waiting for reconstructive surgery following treatment for breast cancer are not held centrally by Public Health Scotland (PHS). In the case of patients waiting for inpatient or day case treatment the national Waiting Time data collection is designed to identify the procedure that the patient is waiting for. However, not all Boards submit this information consistently and so it is incomplete. In addition, no information is collected on the diagnoses or conditions that relate to the planned procedure.

Statistics relating to the waits patients experience for inpatient or day case admissions, at specialty level are published up to 31 March 2021 using the link below.

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/8036/ipdc_may21.xlsx

The Scottish Government currently only allows travellers returning from green and amber list countries to use NHS tests, delivered through the UK Government’s contract with the travel management company CTM. These tests are the highest quality with established data flows into NHS boards and samples are sequenced to ensure early detection of variants of concern.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has issued advice indicating all those aged 16 and 17 should be offered COVID-19 vaccination. Anyone's who's 16 th birthday is on or after 1 August 2021 you can self-register for an appointment at: https://www.nhsinform.scot/vaccineregistration , from 6 August, with drop in clinics available to everyone in these age groups from the week starting 9 August.

We have agreed with Health Boards and Higher and Further Education Institutions to appoint Single Points of Contacts in universities and colleges who will support the delivery of the vaccination to students across Scotland, including through the use of on-campus vaccination clinics.

Young people who will turn 18 before 31st October 2021 (the current cut-off date for Phase 2 of the vaccination programme) are now eligible for vaccination and can register on the online portal: Registering for a coronavirus vaccine | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot) if they have not already received an appointment letter. Those turning 18 later in the year, will of course be part of the ongoing rolling vaccination programme. The self-registration online portal will stay open as we move into Phase 2 of vaccination in the Autumn.

For second doses, individuals will get an invitation as normal, but if, for example, it goes to a previous address (as may be the case with students), they can rearrange this online or via the Coronavirus Vaccination Helpline on 08000308013 (available 08:00 – 20:00, 7 days a week) to a new health board location. Those who can’t be vaccinated before they leave home, should register with a GP practice to allow their CHI registered address to be up to date, and use the appointment checker to ensure they have a vaccination appointment as soon as possible at their new location.

To counter the risk of letters going to old addresses, and to allow more advance notice of appointments, an appointment checker on NHS Inform will allow someone to view their scheduled appointment earlier than the letter arriving: Vaccine appointment checker | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot) . They can also use the Coronavirus Vaccination Helpline to discuss their appointment.

The appointment checker also means those eligible can reschedule in advance, and can now also reschedule to anywhere in Scotland, to fit in with their work and life. In addition, there are drop-in clinics in various areas for certain age groups. Anyone looking for vaccination should check their local NHS website to see what is available in their area.

It is hoped that many new students will be vaccinated before they attend their new further or higher education location. However, as we all know, it takes time for an immune response to develop to the vaccine (2-3 weeks), so even after individuals have received their first dose vaccination, they should continue to follow the FACTS guidance to help reduce the spread of the virus, and minimise the risk to themselves and those around them.

From 2 August, travellers who arrive from amber list countries (who have not travelled through a red list country in the previous 10 days) who are residents of and have been fully vaccinated as part of programmes in the UK, US and the EU as well as a number of other European countries, will be exempted from self-isolation.

Those who have been exempted must show an accepted record of vaccination at the point of entering Scotland that they have received a full course of the vaccine and 14 days have passed since the final dose. This also applies to under-18 residents of those countries and travellers taking part in formally approved Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials.

The exemption from amber list countries for fully vaccinated individuals only applies to self-isolation and day 8 tests, and those applicable must still follow the other rules, including taking tests prior to their departure and booking and undertaking a day 2 test if you are over the age of 11.

The Scottish Government continues dialogue with the UK Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive with the aim that future changes to policy on fully vaccinated travellers is announced on a four nations basis.

The Scottish Housing Regulator collects comprehensive data on sheltered housing provided by Local Authorities and other Social Housing Landlords. The latest published data, as at 31 March 2019, broken down by local authority, is available at:

https://www.housingregulator.gov.scot/media/1407/stock-by-provision-and-la-area-2019.xlsx . Data has been collected since 1999 but is not currently published by the Scottish Housing Regulator. This data has been published by Scottish Government from 2001 to 2013 (details below) and data for other years may be available from the Scottish Housing Regulator.

The latest available figures show that as at March 2019, there were 27,691 sheltered self-contained units (15,237 provided by Local Authorities and 12,454 provided by Housing Associations), 3,051 very sheltered self-contained units (769 provided by Local Authorities and 2,282 provided by Housing Associations) and 15,812 medium dependency self-contained units (6,673 provided by Local Authorities and 12,139 provided by Housing Associations).

The Scottish Government also collects information on the number of sheltered homes provided by local authorities. This data is available from 2001 to 2019, but excludes all local authorities which have transferred their stock to Housing Associations.

Latest available Scottish Government annual statistics on the local authority provision of housing for older people, including the provision of sheltered, very sheltered, and medium dependency housing up to 2019, are published at

https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-scotland-2019-key-trends-summary/ , with detailed local authority level Excel tables available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-housing-for-older-people-and-people-with-disabilities/ . These tables include Scottish Housing Regulator data from 2001 to 2013 on sheltered housing provided by Housing Associations.