Chamber and committees

Public Health Scotland publish figures quarterly and annually on the number of acute beds broken down by NHS Board of Treatment and Specialty.

The most recent annual publication, covering April 2020–March 2021, was published on 29 September 2020.

The Scottish Government provided Scotland’s local authorities with an additional £1.2 billion in direct support during 2020-21 through the local government finance settlement – over and above their regular grant payments to combat COVID-19. Taken together with the additional £259 million confirmed for this year, this brings the value of the overall COVID-19 support package for councils up to over £1.5 billion.

£10 million of funding was announced on 3 August to enable local authorities to undertake CO2 monitoring to assess the ventilation levels in all learning, teaching and play spaces by the October break.

Further to initial recommendations from the Short Life Working Group on Ventilation, funding of up to £25million to support businesses with ventilation was announced on 28 September. Due to be open for applications in November, further details will be available in due course.

On 30 September 2021 we launched the NHS Scotland COVID Status app which was developed for vaccination information initially. We have developed our app to meet the EU requirements so we expect this to be compatible with the IATA Travel Pass. We have and continue to engage with international stakeholders and UK Government to ensure the app is compatible with the other countries requirements of entry.

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage and maintain the school estate across Scotland. The Scottish Government asked local authorities to detail any ventilation mitigations or remedial action arising throughout the CO2 monitoring exercise. Areas of potentially poor ventilation should be identified by reference to the Scottish Government’s Reducing Risks in Schools Guidance, which makes clear at what level of CO2 concentration remedial action should be considered.

To date, local authorities have reported only limited instances of remedial action being required in their learning estates.

The Scottish Government confirmed a total of £10m funding allocations to local authorities in its grant letter on 14 October 2021. The funding allocations for all local authorities have been agreed and grant payments will be made in line with standard processes and timelines. Local authorities have confirmed that they have been progressing their purchases of CO2 monitors on the basis of confirmed funding allocations. We have requested formal confirmation by the end of November that all funding provided has been, or will be, used for the specified purposes.

The M80 northbound Junction 4a Low Wood off slip spur to Cumbernauld Town Centre has been closed alongside lane restrictions passing over the motorway overbridges on the A8011 to allow structure inspections and investigation works to be carried out. This stage of the works is expected to be completed by the end of November.

There are no plans to undertake an immediate metastatic breast cancer audit. Our focus currently remains on maximizing available clinical capacity to see patients. Our £114.5m National Cancer Plan has a range of measures aimed at benefitting all cancer patients, including implementation of a single point of contact resource that will support patients throughout their pathway, and after discharge, including those with secondary breast cancer. We are however giving further clinical consideration to possible audit work in this area while recognising the ongoing severe pressures in our NHS.

Exploring the introduction of a digital sales tax in Scotland will be progressed in line with the Scottish Government’s fiscal and tax policy making cycle and will monitor closely the UK Government’s planned forthcoming consultation on the arguments for and against an online sales tax, following the conclusion of their fundamental review of business rates this autumn.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained directly from Health Boards.

In accordance with section 121 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, local authorities report annually on provisions on allotments in their areas. Reports are available from each local authority online. The Scottish Government does not hold historic data on allotment provision.