Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has announced £375m of business support to support businesses in the sectors most affected by the restrictions and guidance to control the spread of Omicron. This includes £6m for the most directly affected businesses in the tourism sector including inbound tour operators, day tour operators, coach operators, hostels, visitor attractions and marine/outdoor. Guidance on this funding and other funds is available on Financial support for businesses - News | VisitScotland.org and findbusinesssupport.gov.scot

We have had to make tough decisions to target funding to sectors immediately impacted by the updated public health guidance. Decisions on the allocation of the remaining funds will be confirmed following further consultation with affected sectors on how it can best be targeted.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has not yet made a recommendation on the use of self-sampling in the national cervical screening programme. However the UK NSC continues to gather and evaluate evidence on the matter. Scotland is playing an active part in evaluating the benefits of self-sampling, through a study in NHS Dumfries and Galloway. We are taking the necessary steps to ensure that we can roll it out as soon as possible once a recommendation is made. Patient safety is our top priority and we will not act until we are assured it is safe to do so.

Marine Scotland – Licensing Operations Team (“MS-LOT”) has recently received the written report from Seagreen Wind Energy Limited in respect of unexploded ordnance clearance activities. MS-LOT is currently conducting a review of the report and will publish on its website (marine.gov.scot) once this review is complete.

As part of a Transportation Noise Action Plan, five soundproofing barriers were constructed in 2020 at priority areas for noise management. We are currently developing proposals for further barriers where practicable at noise management areas on the network. This includes locations on the M8 such as Riddrie, where the next step is to complete environmental investigations.

Transport Scotland has also engaged extensively with Glasgow City Council’s consultants on proposals to cover the M8 between Junctions 17 and 19. The level difference between the M8 and adjacent roads varies significantly due to the M8 crossing the railway near Charing Cross Station. The Council’s proposal was for a cover to be constructed at the same level as the adjacent roads; however, for the majority of the section there is insufficient headroom. Transport Scotland will continue to participate in discussions regarding this section of the M8, both on the feasibility of proposed solutions and how the desired outcomes would contribute to shared objectives.

The table below from Public Health Scotland shows the numbers of inpatient and day case hospital admissions with a primary diagnosis of diabetic ketoacidosis and the number of these admissions where the patient died in hospital.

Due to the way that complications of diabetes are coded in the international ICD10 coding system this only includes cases of diabetic ketoacidosis without coma. These figures do not include cases of diabetic ketoacidosis with coma, which cannot be identified separately from instances of diabetic coma without ketoacidosis.

People applying for a Young Persons Free Bus Travel National Entitlement Card (NEC) card are asked to provide 'proof of person' (the young person's name and age) and proof of residence (where the young person lives). For those aged 11 and over a digital photograph is required.

Young people aged 16 and over apply for the new NEC card themselves, whilst parents or guardians apply on behalf of children aged 5-15.

Full details of the acceptable proofs for the Young Persons Free Bus Travel Scheme are listed on the NEC website at Proofs | National Entitlement Card (nec.scot).

We welcome the publication of the Scottish Diabetes Survey which provides an annual summary of key issues and trends in diabetes care and treatment in Scotland. As in previous years, the number of people living with diabetes in Scotland is increasing. However, we are not seeing a great increase in the number of new cases, but rather people with diabetes are living longer with the condition.

At the end of December 2020 the Scottish Diabetes Survey reported that 317,128 people have been diagnosed with diabetes of all types in Scotland compared to 312,390 people diagnosed in 2019.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone living with diabetes in Scotland can access appropriate, high-quality, person-centred care. In February 2021, we published our Diabetes Improvement Plan refresh, which builds on the progress made since 2014 and sets out our priorities to deliver safe, effective and person-centred healthcare, treatment and support to those living with diabetes.

Our Type 2 Diabetes Early Detection, Intervention and Prevention Framework was published in 2018 and is designed to support those at risk of, or diagnosed with, type 2 diabetes. It provides guidance to NHS boards on the provision of evidence-based, person-centred targeted interventions across diabetes and weight management services.

In July 2019, the Scottish standards for the delivery of tier 2 and tier 3 weight management services to children and young people and to adults were published. These standards provide a detailed framework to drive forward consistent, equitable and evidence-based approaches across Scotland in the treatment of higher body weight and associated health risks.

We are committed to reducing the impact of inequalities on health outcomes for people living with diabetes, and equity of access is highlighted as a key priority in our Diabetes Improvement Plan refresh, published in February 2021.

We are working with key partners including NHS Boards, Health & Social Care Partnerships, Diabetes Scotland and people living with diabetes to ensure that evolving care models address existing health inequalities by integrating pathways with existing services and resources such as social work, mental health services, education and third sector.

As diabetes services evolve and include more virtual offerings, we will work to ensure that those people with diabetes who are unable to access services digitally are not disadvantaged as a result of digital exclusion.

The Scottish Government is committed to using public procurement to address the Climate Emergency. This work is framed in terms of the Sustainable Procurement Duty of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, which requires public bodies to consider how they can improve the environmental, as well as social and economic, wellbeing of the authority’s area, and act in a way to secure improvements identified. Public bodies routinely report on the environmental benefits generated through their procurement activity in their Annual Procurement Reports.

In response to the Climate Emergency the Scottish Government established the Climate and Procurement Forum with representative bodies of key sectors, to provide leadership and direction to enable traction on climate change.

Examples of actions leading from the Forum include publishing a procurement policy note to clarify expectations with respect to climate and circular economy considerations; Ministers writing to local leaders stressing their role in enabling sustainable outcomes through procurement, and producing Climate Literacy eLearning to assist public bodies to take account of climate and circular economy through procurement. To support environmentally-friendly buying options, our national frameworks are available to the wider public sector and charities, for example our Non Domestic Energy Efficiency Frameworks supports the transition to a low carbon economy across sectors. Additionally, we host the latest current guidance on training on the Sustainable Procurement Tools platform.

We announced £375m of business support to tackle Omicron and provided details on how £276m of this will be allocated.

Decisions on the allocation of the remaining funds will be confirmed following further consultation with affected sectors on how it can best be targeted.