Chamber and committees

The disease control response to the avian influenza outbreak is being coordinated across the four administrations, with the Animal and Plant Health Agency leading on surveillance, triage and testing in the UK. Wild bird findings (suspected of HPAI) in Scotland, England and Wales are reported to Defra’s national hotline. This information is then given to relevant teams to triage the collection of samples for testing, where required. This is an evolving situation with the species identified for collection and testing under constant review and adjusted according to surveillance needs.

As of 24 June 2022, 490 wild birds from multiple locations across Scotland, consisting of 24 species, have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1. More information, including the findings of HPAI in wild birds are available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/avian-influenza-outbreaks/#wildbirds

Avian influenza is spread mainly through live birds, and current veterinary advice is that wild bird carcases should be left in situ, unless landowners consider it necessary to remove them. The Scottish Government has published advice for local authorities, landowners, wildlife rescue centres and members of the public regarding reporting, collection and safe disposal of dead wild birds. We will keep our guidance under continuous review as the situation develops.

Avian influenza is a highly infectious disease, and while there is little that can be done to limit the spread within seabird colonies, action can be taken to reduce the risk of onward transmission from infected colonies to uninfected colonies and other locations, and to minimise additional stress on potentially infected birds. To that end, NatureScot has suspended all ringing activities within seabird colonies for the remainder of the breeding season to mitigate these risks. Surveys of some seabird colonies are also ongoing to monitor bird numbers, and any mortality events.

Moving forward, we are in contact with the other UK administrations and statutory nature conservation bodies with regard to the response plan for future disease outbreaks. Although the immediate response is to the spread of the disease, there is a need to look ahead at how we can quantify the impacts and what else can be done to improve resilience within the colonies.

The 2021-22 season has seen the UK’s largest outbreak of avian influenza to date, which has affected commercial flocks of poultry and other captive birds as well as wild birds. While maintaining high levels of biosecurity among domestic flocks helps protect against disease, addressing the disease among wild birds can pose significant challenges.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) carries out year-round avian influenza surveillance of dead wild birds reported to Defra’s GB national helpline. As of 24 June 2022, 490 wild birds from multiple locations across Scotland, consisting of 24 species, have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1. Findings of HPAI in wild birds are published weekly by APHA and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/avian-influenza-in-wild-birds

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with a range of partner organisations to monitor and respond to the situation where action can be taken, recognising the importance of communication and coordination in preparedness and responses.

We continually review our response planning to current and future avian influenza outbreaks based on the latest scientific advice and existing disease control measures. This includes quantifying the impacts of such outbreaks on our wild bird populations, including seabirds. We will also be identifying with partner organisations what else can be done to respond to the outbreak and improve resilience of our internationally important seabird populations.

The infrastructure works currently being undertaken at Uig harbour are being led by Highland Council.

I fully appreciate that concerns remain around the impact of the berth closure on local communities and businesses. I have not yet given approval to the works to begin and have instructed Transport Scotland officials to look, again, at all viable mitigations which could be brought to bear with all relevant stakeholders.

The number of daily Ministerial journeys for the period of 23 May 2022 to 18 June 2022 are provided in the following table.

The 2021-22 season has seen the UK’s largest outbreak of avian influenza to date, which has affected commercial flocks of poultry and other captive birds as well as wild birds. While maintaining high levels of biosecurity among domestic flocks helps protect against disease, addressing the disease among wild birds, including our internationally important seabird colonies, can pose significant challenges.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with a range of partner organisations to monitor and respond to the situation where action can be taken, recognising the importance of communication and coordination in preparedness and responses.

Avian influenza is a highly infectious disease, and while there is little that can be done to limit the spread within seabird colonies, action can be taken to reduce the risk of onward transmission from infected colonies to other locations, and to minimise additional stress on potentially infected birds. To that end, NatureScot has suspended all ringing research activities within seabird colonies for the remainder of the breeding season to mitigate these risks. Surveys of some seabird colonies are also ongoing to monitor bird numbers, and any mortality events.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has published advice for local authorities, landowners, wildlife rescue centres and members of the public regarding reporting, collection and safe disposal of dead wild birds. We will keep our guidance under continuous review as the situation develops.

It is too soon to determine with any certainty the impact of the current outbreak on seabird populations. NatureScot, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, RSPB Scotland and BTO Scotland are working towards collating colony level data and identifying how these data can be analysed to offer information on population level impacts. However, some internationally important seabird colonies have clearly been affected by the current outbreak. Therefore, the developing Scottish Seabird Conservation Strategy is critical in ensuring that any actions identified are timely and effective to help optimise the conservation prospects of seabirds in Scotland from existing and emerging threats, including disease threats such as avian influenza.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of day services to both those who use them and to their families and carers. We have been working closely with local areas to ensure that services are delivered safely. Revised guidance for buildings-based day services was published on 26 May 2022. The guidance says that such services should return to pre-pandemic capacity wherever possible, while operating safely in line with COVID-19 guidance.

The Scottish Government is working with a variety of key learning disability stakeholder groups and organisations who highlight concerns and issues. These are being addressed through relevant policy teams across the Scottish Government to ensure a joined-up approach. We are also working with strategic partners such as Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). HIS have been commissioned to gather and provide insights into different approaches to the redesign of learning disability day services, recognising the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has created for service users, their families and service providers.

It is clear that the changes in working practices and budgets will offer opportunities to right-size the portfolio and improve efficient delivery of services to the public. There are no details of any savings available yet as the multi-year programme has not started. The first phase of the programme will begin this year and will look to gather and validate existing estate information and to plan for a place-based approach across the public sector. Subsequent phases will identify opportunities to work towards an optimal, greener and interoperable public sector estate.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities. It is also the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on Community Facilities, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government has increased local government funding by over £1 billion in 2022-23, a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent, despite a 5.2 per cent real terms reduction in the overall Scottish Budget.

In 2022-23, City of Edinburgh Council will receive £915.4 million to fund local services, which equates to an extra £86.7 million to support vital day-to-day services or an additional 10.5 per cent compared to 2021-22.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring the sustainability of the NHS and in March 2022 we published, in partnership with CoSLA, the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care . The Strategy outlines our shared vision: a sustainable, skilled workforce with attractive career choices where all are respected and valued for the work they do. To ensure all Health Boards have sufficient capacity, planning guidance has been issued to support the production of new Three Year Workforce Plans, supported by local systems’ workforce data.

Staffing across NHS Scotland is at record levels, having increased by 23.5% under this Government. There are also record high numbers of nursing and midwifery staff, up by 14.8% since September 2006, and numbers of student nurses entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 9% in 2022-2023, the 10 th successive increase in recommended student numbers.

We are investing £11 million over the next five years in new national and international recruitment campaigns and have established a national Centre for Workforce Supply to support the development and implementation of resource strategies and services across the system. We are also carrying out work to promote service innovation and redesign, such as utilisation of Associate Physicians, Advanced Nurse Practitioners and Health Care Support Workers; all of which will support maintaining appropriate staffing levels.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07994 on 6 May 2022. 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