COSLA leaders and Ministers have now agreed the funding package to support the development of Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES) for the 2022-23 financial year. This funding package will be treated as a redetermination of the General Revenue Grant and paid in the last 2 weeks of March 2023. This funding could be used to cover internal resourcing and/or procurement of external technical services. Scottish Government officials have already communicated the agreement of the funding to local authorities and will also provide further guarantees and details via COSLA's official channels in due course .

From the outset, the Scottish Government’s decision-making on the COVID-19 vaccination programme has been guided by the expert advice provided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and senior clinicians.

Spring 2022 Booster

On 21 February 2022, the JCVI advised that a spring booster dose be offered to the following groups:

adults aged 75 years and over

residents in care homes for older adults

individuals aged 12 years and over who are immunosuppressed

Those who qualify as immunosuppressed as defined in chapter 14a of the Green book COVID-19 Greenbook chapter 14a (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Autumn Booster

On 19 May 2022 the JCVI issued interim advice regarding the autumn 2022 COVID-19 boosters. The JCVI interim advice is to offer the autumn 2022 vaccination to the following groups:

Residents in a care home for older adults and staff working in care homes for older adults;

Frontline health and social care workers;

All those 65 years of age and over; and

Adults aged 16 to 65 years in a clinical risk group.

The JCVI will announce its final plans for the autumn programme, including further detail on the definitions of clinical risk groups, in due course and we stand ready to implement any further decisions on eligibility made by the JCVI.

There is a clinical referral route available for clinicians to refer anyone who they identify as requiring additional dose(s) of vaccine or a different dosing schedule for clinical reasons (in keeping with eligibility as recommended by JCVI), on a case by-case-basis.

We are committed to supporting patients to deal with the emotional and physical effects of cancer. We are currently working in partnership with Macmillan to improve the service we offer cancer patients through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme (TCC). This joint partnership with Macmillan is worth £18 million, and is the first of its kind in the UK. The programme looks to ensure that every cancer patient in Scotland has access to specialist key support worker, who can provide emotional, financial and practical support to those who need it most. This partnership is the first of its kind in the UK.

To ensure vital services of support for patients continued throughout the pandemic we established the third sector resilience fund and the wellbeing fund as part of a £350 million support fund announced on 18 March 2020. The £15 million Adult Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund was announced on 15 October 2021. This is the first year of a two year Fund to support mental health and wellbeing in communities across Scotland.

As part of our Cancer Recovery Plan, a new National Framework has been developed to support people affected by cancer. Launching in Spring 2022, the Framework not only sets out general principles for high quality holistic care, but also incorporates a number of tools that will aid implementation across Scotland. The Framework highlights the four levels of psychological care and support which are supported through expert evidence, and presents two models for implementation that are applicable across sectors, including health, care and the third-sector.

Cancer prehabilitation can support patients with the mental and physical challenges of living with cancer. A Cancer Prehabilitation Implementation Steering Group was convened in April 2021 to support and oversee the implementation and evaluation of comprehensive prehabilitation and evaluation whilst three subgroups look to: develop a digital resource that will improve access to education and training, improve access to psychological care and support and develop and implement a nutrition framework for prehabilitation.

Upon arrival of Ukrainian Displaced People at Welcome Hubs, communication needs are assessed to ensure that information is provided in a format that meets their needs. This may include easy to read documents in community languages and interpretation services for those who experience language barriers.

ESOL provision is offered by a range of providers including Community Learning and Development services through local authority partnerships, colleges, schools, voluntary organisations, universities and private language providers. Scottish Government ESOL funding is currently provided through colleges as part of the grant allocated to the Scottish Funding Council. Colleges are instructed to work with Community Planning Partnerships to determine the level of need for provision and agree with partners how this need can be met.

The Scottish Government has a long standing commitment of improving Fair Work across Scotland. We are actively working with our partners in Local Government, COSLA, Trade Unions and the third and independent sectors to support and encourage Effective Voice within the Adult Social Care Sector. This includes ways we can support people to access Trade Union membership through an improved awareness and access of Trade Unions. It is the responsibility of Trade Unions to build their membership through their usual channels, and we are supportive of the efforts which Trade Unions are undertaking to do this’

Furthermore, we continue to support the Fair Work and Trade Union Modernisation Fund, committing to support unions in embedding the Fair Work Framework in Scotland’s workplaces. This funding has enabled unions to work proactively, and to build upon ongoing efforts, to tackle precarious work, and organising for Fair Work in less unionised sectors.

As referred to in response to PQs S6W-08593 and S6W-08594 on 1 June 2022, we were pleased to receive the report and recommendations from the National Partnership for Culture on 28 February 2022. Scottish Government officials are working together across portfolios to review the recommendations. Our response to the National Partnership for Culture recommendations will be published shortly.

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

It has been agreed that some patients based in Tayside and receiving radiotherapy for breast cancer will have to travel for their treatment to their next nearest cancer centre, in Edinburgh, Glasgow or Aberdeen. Patients required to travel will be fully supported, with travel and accommodation costs covered by the Health Board.

NHS Tayside have been working closely with Oncology teams across all four Cancer Centres in Scotland to ensure that patients in need of treatment are prioritised appropriately. Discussions about mutual aid have taken place between Chief Executives and Medical Directors and the national oncology taskforce is looking at national approaches to the management of oncology.

The mutual aid provided has been agreed on the basis that there will be no adverse impact on patient care in NHS Grampian.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) is unable to provide information on how many patients have died while on an NHS Scotland waiting list in each year as far back as 1999. However, the national waiting times datamart captures quality-assured data on the reasons for a patient being removed from a waiting list, including when a patient has died, from 1st April 2013 onwards.

Table 1 contains the following trend information for the period 1 st April 2013 to 31 March 2022, presented by financial year:

? The number of patients waiting to be seen at a new outpatient appointment or waiting to be admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case, expressed as an average based on the number waiting at the end of quarters in each financial year.

? The number of removals from waiting lists for the reason ‘died’.

? A simple mortality rate is also included to account for variation in waiting list sizes. This is presented as the number of deaths per year per 1000 patients waiting at quarter-end, averaged over the quarters provided for each year.

Table 1: Average waiting list size and total number of patients removed from lists for the reason ‘died’ whilst waiting for a new outpatient appointment or treatment as an inpatient or day case, NHSScotland, April 2013 to March 2022

Over the course of the last five years, the force has created separate Divisions for specialist officers such as CID. As a national police force, these specialist officers are not bound by traditional geographical borders. Therefore, to provide an accurate breakdown of resource placement in Scotland my officials have requested this information from the British Transport Police and I will write to the member in due course.

ScotRail’s Safety and Security team has been developing options relating to the current ban on consumption of alcohol on trains. I understand that the ScotRail Trains Ltd Board will consider these options shortly and will take account of the range of stakeholder views, including those of Trade Unions and any further representations that are made. I will then consider any recommendation ScotRail provides, giving due cognisance to staff and passenger safety.