Question reference: S5W-35752
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 4 March 2021
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Current status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 12 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that public health information about COVID-19 is (a) available in languages other than English and (b) accessible via internet search engines when searches are made in languages other than English.
Answer
The Scottish Government works closely with NHS 24, Public Health Scotland and third sector partners to ensure key public health information on COVID-19 is available in multiple languages and accessible formats via the NHS Inform website, which is Scotland’s central repository for public health information.
Key COVID content is available in 14 different languages and formats via the NHS Inform website.
In addition, the NHS Inform COVID helpline provides interpreter services to support conversations with people whose first language is not English. The NHS Inform website utilises metadata associated with all alternative language formats, which aids searching for content in these languages.
The COVID-19 National Door Drops that have been sent to all homes in Scotland for Covid-19, Test and Protect and COVID-19 Vaccines were produced in multiple languages and accessible formats. These additional formats were made available on gov.scot and NHS Inform.