Chamber and committees

Anyone who is not in one of the groups listed in the answer to S6W-32362 on 23 December 2024 is not eligible for COVID-19 vaccination this winter.

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

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advise flu vaccination for those aged 65 years and over. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Scotland expanded the programme to protect individuals, public services and the NHS. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Scottish Government made a policy decision to expanded the programme to protect individuals, public services and the NHS.

Eligibility criteria for the last three years are set out below.

2024-25:

• Residents in long-stay care homes / facilities
• Those aged 65+
• Those aged 18 to 64 at risk including:
  • clinical at-risk groups as per Green Book Chapter 19 (GBC19)
  • the homeless
  • those experiencing substance misuse
  • asylum seekers in Home Office hotel accommodation
  • prisoners
  • pregnant women
• Frontline health and social care workers
• Non-frontline NHS workers
• Poultry workers & bird keepers
• Unpaid carers and young carers
• Household contacts of the immunosuppressed
• Those aged 6 months to 2 years at clinical risk
• Those aged 2-5 years not yet at school
• Primary & secondary school children

2023-24:

• Residents in long-stay care homes / facilities
• Those aged 50 +
• Those aged 18 to 49 at risk including:
  • clinical at-risk groups as per GBC19
  • the homeless
  • those experiencing substance misuse
  • prisoners
  • pregnant women
• Frontline health and social care workers
• Non-frontline NHS workers
• Poultry workers
• Teachers
• Prison staff
• Unpaid carers and young carers
• Household contacts of the immunosuppressed
• Those aged 6 months to 2 years at clinical risk
• Those aged 2-5 years not yet at school
• Primary & secondary school children

2022-23:

• Residents in long-stay care homes / facilities
• Those aged 50 +
• Those aged 18 to 49 at risk including:
  • clinical at-risk groups as per GBC19
  • the homeless
  • those experiencing substance misuse
  • prisoners
  • pregnant women
• Frontline health and social care workers
• Non-frontline NHS workers
• Teachers
• Prison staff
• Unpaid carers and young carers
• Household contacts of the immunosuppressed
• Those aged 6 months to 2 years at clinical risk
• Those aged 2-5 years not yet at school
• Primary & secondary school children

Eligibility for, and changes to, the COVID-19 vaccination programme in Scotland has always been based on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

In its statement of 8 November 2022 (published in January 2023), the JCVI advised that in 2023 COVID-19 vaccination should move towards a targeted offer during vaccination campaigns to protect those at higher risk of severe COVID-19.

From 30 June 2023, on the advice of the JCVI, we ceased the universal offer of COVID-19 vaccination to the entire population. From that point, only those advised as eligible by the JCVI were invited forward for COVID-19 vaccination during the JCVI-designated seasonal winter and spring campaigns.

Following the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which provides advice on immunisation to all four UK nations, for winter 2024, COVID-19 vaccination is being offered to the following groups in Scotland:

Residents in care homes for older adults

All adults aged 65 years and over

Individuals aged 6 months and over who are in a clinical at risk group (as defined in tables 3 and 4 in the COVID-19 chapter of the Green Book), including pregnant women

Frontline Health & Social Care Workers

Staff in care homes for older adults

The key change in eligibility this winter, compared to winter 2023, is that unpaid carers and household contacts of the immunosuppressed are no longer eligible for COVID-19 vaccination this winter, as per the advice of the JCVI.

The JCVI noted that they no longer advise COVID-19 vaccination for frontline health and social care workers and staff in care homes for older adults, but advised that health and social care service providers may wish to consider vaccination as an occupational health programme.

The Scottish Government made the decision to continue the offer of COVID-19 vaccination to frontline health and social care workers, and staff in care homes for older adults for winter 2024. We will begin to assess the need for any future offer for these two groups in early 2025.

The Scottish Government considers that, if one or more juror is excused during a trial, that should not place the accused person at a disadvantage or an advantage: the majority required for a conviction should not fluctuate depending on the number of jurors who remain. The Scottish Government therefore considers that the requirement for at least a two thirds majority should remain constant in cases where the jury reduces in size. Specifically, the Government's proposal is that:

• in the case of a jury consisting of 14 or 15 jurors, at least 10 jurors must be in favour of a guilty verdict for a conviction,
• in the case of a jury consisting of 13 jurors, at least 9 jurors must be in favour of a guilty verdict for a conviction, and
• in the case of a jury consisting of 12 jurors, at least 8 jurors must be in favour of a guilty verdict for a conviction.

The Government will be bringing forward Stage 2 amendments to the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill which, if passed, would set these thresholds for conviction.

In addition to our investment in policing, to strengthen our approach to address violence, in May 2023, we published a Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland. This sets out our strategy to prevent violence, and where it does occur, to reduce the harm. The Framework takes a public health approach to tackling violence, with a focus on prevention at a primary, secondary and tertiary level. By using the research and available evidence, in collaboration with our partner organisations we can target those most at risk of experiencing violence (victim and perpetrator), as early as possible.

Through the Framework’s Action Plan, we are delivering a range of activity to prevent and divert people away from violence, supported by over £2m investment this year.

Funding is supporting partner organisations to carry out a range of activities in schools, hospitals and across communities to prevent and respond to people at risk of experiencing or engaging in violence. This activity is being taken forward by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, Medics Against Violence, YouthLink Scotland, Education Scotland and Police Scotland Youth Volunteers.

A progress update outlining some of the activity carried out over the first year of the Framework was published on 11 September 2024.

Tackling all forms of violence including knife crime is a key priority for this government.

Law enforcement and prosecution are essential in our overall approach to tackling violence, including knife crime. In addition to this, Scotland’s Violence Prevention Framework uses a public health approach to address violence, including knife crime, that focuses on identifying and tackling the underlying root causes of violence. We want to prevent people from picking up a knife in the first instance.

Through the Framework and our partner organisations, a range of activity is being taken forward to divert people away from violence, including reducing knife crime. This includes supporting and monitoring the effectiveness and progress being achieved on the following;

• YouthLink Scotland’s No Knives, Better Lives programme which provides training to practitioners and engages directly with young people on the risks and consequences of violence including knife crime.
• Medics Against Violence’s schools education programme, which delivers violence prevention lessons within schools and other settings.
• The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit are working within communities to provide violence prevention training including the carrying and use of weapons.

We will also utilise national statistics to monitor levels of handling offensive weapon crimes, which includes knife carrying and would hope to maintain the improvements we have seen over the longer term.

As part of implementation of the Framework, we committed to developing a Measurement Framework which will monitor high-level progress towards the Framework’s vision over the long term. This will be published following publication of the findings from the 2023-24 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey in 2025, thereby aligning it with the very latest national data available on violence victimisation.

Funding allocated to its violence reduction strategy* are as follows:

The Scottish Government shares concerns about the rise in popularity of high puff-count vapes, their accessibility to young people and the associated health risks they pose. The Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 set out that in order for a vape to be considered reusable, it must be both refillable and rechargeable. By refillable, this means that the vape must contain a single-use container which is separately available for purchase by an individual user and can be replaced by the user in the normal course of use, or a container that can be refilled by the user in the normal course of use. By rechargeable, it means that the vape must have both a battery that can be recharged, and a coil which is separately available for purchase by an individual user and can be replaced by the user within the normal course of use.

We share concerns regarding the growing market share of high puff-count vapes, however the definition of single-use within the Regulations sets out that a vape must be refillable and rechargeable. In addition to a rechargeable battery, it must have a replaceable coil in order to be considered rechargeable and a refillable or replaceable container to be refillable. It is otherwise single-use and its sale and supply will be banned in Scotland when the ban comes into force next year. We have worked closely with Trading Standards to ensure that there are no loopholes in the definition of a single-use vape in the Regulations that manufacturers can exploit. We will continue to work with Trading Standards to monitor developments in vape design to ensure that the ban is fit for purpose and properly enforced.