Chamber and committees

The following table shows how many school-aged children are in each local authority (as at September 2020) and how many devices have been distributed by councils using the £25m digital inclusion funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21. Local authorities across Scotland have a range of approaches to provision of technology in schools, including some councils who have undertaken to provide cohorts of their school population with devices using their own budgets. We do not hold information centrally on those local digital inclusion schemes, therefore, the table below only shows devices distributed through the funding made available by Scottish Government in 2020-21.

In October 2020 the Scottish Government published the Mental Health Transition & Recovery Plan. The plan outlined our priorities for mental health, highlighting the importance of community based mental health and wellbeing support.

In February we announced an additional £120 million for a Recovery & Renewal Fund to ensure the delivery of the commitments set out in the Mental Health Transition & Recovery Plan. The Fund will support the development of an integrated culture of mental wellbeing and prevention within local communities and across Scotland, and promote the capacity and role of third sector organisations to deliver this.

We are committed to improving access to community mental health and wellbeing support. This year we have provided local authorities with an additional £15 Million to fund over 200 new and enhanced supports and services for children and young people. In addition the recently published Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party shared policy programme commits to doubling the budget for community based mental wellbeing services for children and young people to £30 million per annum. Ministers are currently considering options to take this forward and will be informed by the work of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board.

The NHS recovery plan published in August also highlighted the importance of community mental health support. The Plan commits to building on the success of our community link worker programme, to ensure the by 2026, every GP Practice will have access to a mental health and wellbeing service, creating 1,000 additional dedicated staff who can help grow community mental health resilience and direct social prescribing.

When the Gourock to Dunoon passenger service was brought into the Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Services network, the Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands did commit to look at fares on the passenger service and we remain committed to doing this. However, this is not to prejudge what the outcome of any such review would be.

We are considering Gourock – Dunoon fares in the context of ongoing work to seek to establish a compliant method to deliver RET on the Pentland Firth routes, where there is also a mix of commercial and subsidised operators. This is challenging but we are making progress.

We need to continue this work to fully understand the legal constraints and options for reducing fares where there is more than one operator, prior to any further decisions on RET. Scottish Government resources were pivoted to deal with Covid-19, however work on this issue has now resumed.

2019/2020 identified savings were as follows:

The A9 in the Dunkeld area and the associated junctions are busy particularly in summer carrying the combination of strategic commercial, commuter and tourist traffic. Transport Scotland is aware that at the busiest times, which often align with periods of good weather, gaining access onto the A9 trunk road can take some time. This situation is found across the country at many locations popular with tourists.

An investigation was carried out at the A9/A822/A923 staggered junction following identification of the location through the trunk road Annual Road Safety Review. Transport Scotland is introducing a series of measures to improve safety and operation within the current physical constraints until the A9 Dualling programme significantly changes the road layout at this location. These upgrades have included traffic sign and road marking improvements, in early 2020, to enhance direction finding and to upgrade signs to current standards. We are monitoring the effects of these measures in reducing accidents.

In addition, installation of illuminated bollards to improve the visibility of the road layout in darkness and to highlight the junction to turning motorists will be carried out later this year, along with the Birnam (B867) and Dalguise junctions.

A scheme to progress resurfacing of the A9/A822/A923 junction serving both Dunkeld, Strathbraan and Inver is to take place in late Autumn/Winter of the current financial year. This will provide the road surface at this location with improved surface grip and a consistency of appearance throughout. New high performance road markings and highly reflective road studs will be installed to define turning areas. A double white line system is proposed to deter overtaking through the junction.

I have commissioned consideration of what further measures might be deployed to improve safety at the junction.

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been made of the present capacity of the A1 south of Dunbar, and what its position is on its suitability for the amount of HGV traffic that (a) currently uses the route and (b) is estimated to use the route in the future.Transport Scotland works with road Operating Companies and Local Authorities to continually monitor usage and performance of the Trunk Road Network, this data feeds in to the Transport Model for Scotland (TMfS) and various regional transport models. These are used on an ongoing basis to assess performance of the network in current and estimated future conditions. Figures for traffic currently using the A1 from the National Traffic Data System (NTDS) count site at Grantshouse show a daily average traffic flow of 9,113 vehicles in 2019 with an average of 15.6% HGVs (approximately 1,400 HGVs per day).

This shows that currently less than one fifth of vehicles at this count site on the A1 are an HGV. Analysis undertaken previously as part of the Borders Transport Corridors Study did not identify an issue with unsuitable proportions of HGV traffic at this location, and indeed found that HGV traffic on the A1 had reduced by 2% between 2010 and 2016, despite increases on other trunk roads in the area.

Transport modelling to assess current performance and predict future use is currently being undertaken as part of the emerging Strategic Transport Projects Review. STPR2 is ongoing, therefore is not possible to take a position on the future suitability of particular (sections of) roads until the modelling being used to inform the appraisal process is completed.

We are aware of the specific issue in which Norway decided to allow fully vaccinated visitors from the UK but only if their record of vaccination had a QR code. On 3 September 2021 we introduced QR codes to vaccination status records. People from Scotland, who are fully vaccinated, are now able to travel to Norway without requiring to quarantine for 10 days. People can either download or request a paper copy of their vaccination status from NHS Inform or call the Freephone Helpline 0808 196 8565.

The Scottish Government is aware of the paper published by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) on the use of rubber granulates in artificial sports pitches. Also that ECHA, through its EU REACH process, has placed some restrictions on the use of rubber granules in the EU.

We recognise the impact the deliberate introduction of these granules has on the natural environment and that the EU restrictions might have an impact on the supply of rubber granules.

Our National Agency for Sport, sport scotland, will be participating in a UK Sports Agency meeting in September where the use of the infill will be discussed.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. However, the number of patients who are registered with a NHS dentist can be found on Public Health Scotland at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/dental-statistics-registration-and-participation/dental-statistics-registration-and-participation-statistics-as-at-30-september-2020/ .

On Friday 3 September 2021 a QR code was included as part of the vaccination status letter. People travelling abroad can request their vaccination status online via NHS Inform or call the Freephone Helpline.