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The Scottish Government is currently developing its consultation exercise, to seek views on future legislative change to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. This follows the report of the former Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee in the last session of the Parliament, on post-legislative scrutiny of the Act. We will announce further information about the consultation as soon as we are in a position to do so.

COVID-19 vaccines are procured on a four nations basis via the UK Vaccines Taskforce. As Scotland is not a member of the COVAX scheme, we are not in a position to share vaccines with our international development partner countries. We will continue to engage with the UK government on this matter.

On 8 December, the First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister to urge the UK government to end its opposition at the World Trade Organisation and to join over 100 countries who are now supportive of a temporary Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver.

We have also provided international development support to our partner countries to support their COVID-19 responses, including vaccine preparedness. This includes the following examples of relevant recent funding.

In December 2020, we provided £2 million to UNICEF to help vaccine distribution, roll-out and online healthcare education in our partner countries of Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia.

In September 2021, we provided £250,000 from our International Development Fund to leverage the provision to our partner countries of £11.2 million worth of PPE - our single biggest ever donation - to aid COVID-19 responses as part of our strategic response.

In February 2022, we provided £1.5 million to UNICEF to support equal access to COVID-19 vaccines in our partner countries. The funds will support vaccination programmes in Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia, their provision of safe oxygen supplies, and help the agency deliver equipment, resources and technical support in response to the pandemic.

I have had regular discussions with the Chief Executive, NHS Lothian but have not specifically met with the Chief Officer, East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership to discuss the Edington Hospital in North Berwick.

On 17 January, I met with delegates from East Lothian and listened to their concerns about Edington Hospital and underlined that decisions about local provision are best made locally. The decision when to re-open Edington Hospital is to be made by NHS Lothian and East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership.

However, I expect any decision that is made to take into account the needs of the local population, and ensure an appropriate level of service are in place to meet those needs.

The Scottish Government meet with NHS 24 on a regular basis to ensure that it delivers its functions in accordance with Ministers’ policies and priorities; to provide strategic leadership; to ensure financial stewardship; and to hold Chief Executives, senior management team and Board to account.

The Scottish Government review all monthly Board papers to keep appraised of Board business and also hold Annual and Mid-year review meetings with NHS 24. Due to the increasing pressures Covid-19 has had on the Service, regular sponsorship engagement has increased significantly with daily and weekly discussions now taking place with the Boards Chief Executive along with regular performance reporting from NHS 24 which allows us to maintain a focus on performance against their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The Scottish Government published Coronavirus (COVID-19): face covering and masks guidance which provides information on the requirement to wear face coverings (unless exempt) including enforcement measures.

Enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions is a matter for Police Scotland and any breaches of these regulations can be reported to Police Scotland directly.

The police have enforcement powers to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice of £60 (halving to £30 if paid within 28 days) if members of the public do not comply with this law without a reasonable excuse. Officers have been asked to Engage, Explain, and Encourage with Enforcement only as a last resort.

We continue to keep the regulations and guidance under regular review.

NHS 24 has played a key role in the response to Covid-19, completely altering the way in which they deliver their Service from a predominantly out of hours Service to 24/7 advice and support for patients both for Covid and in support of the re-design of unscheduled care.

In response to the re-design of unscheduled care programme, the Scottish Government has also successfully launched national media campaigns to help ensure clear and concise public information is delivered to support a reduction of unscheduled ED attendances by directing the public to access the right care from the most appropriate service for their needs.

Callers to 111 are encouraged to seek help from their own GP or from 999 in an emergency, if this is more appropriate and to access NHS inform for information and advice on seasonal illness information and self-help guides.

There has been significant pressure on mental health services throughout the pandemic, and the Scottish Government has responded with record-breaking levels of investment, including our £120 million Mental Health Recovery & Renewal Fund. As part of that work, we have made an additional £40 million available this year to improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and to clear waiting list backlogs by March 2023. We are also continuing to work directly with Health Boards with the poorest performance to ensure the 18 week waiting time standard is met.

As set out in the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, we are taking a whole systems approach to improving children and young people’s mental health. Alongside investing in acute CAMHS, we are seeking to ensure community services and school counselling are also available in a responsive and timely manner. We are developing responses to young people experiencing crisis and distress, as well as investing in approaches that promote prevention, early intervention and reducing stigma.

To support this approach, an additional £15 million has been provided to local authorities this year to deliver locally based mental health and wellbeing support for 5-24 year olds in their communities, providing alternative treatment options and pathways to CAMHS, and we have also ensured access to counselling support services in all secondary schools. Additionally, we are committed to supporting every health board in Scotland with development of Infant Mental Health (IMH) provision through £3 million of funding per annum.

This package of commitments is designed to help ensure the right help is available, in the right place, at the right time. This additional investment will contribute towards delivering our commitment to ensure that, by the end of this Parliament, at least 10% of frontline NHS spend goes towards mental health, with 1% going towards CAMHS.

The following table provides a breakdown of funding distributed from the Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund to date, which supports the delivery of the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan.

As a result of increased demand and changes to service delivery, we have increased funding to NHS 24 by over £20m this year for additional recruitment and the addition of a new call centre in Dundee, which opened in December.

This is supporting the additional recruitment of 575 full time equivalent call handlers and 140 full time equivalent clinicians to date, including through the recently established 24/7 mental health hub.

Engagement with patients has shown NHS 24 that a focus on ensuring patients receive the appropriate advice, first time, rather than answering their call as quickly as possible is preferable. However, patients with serious and urgent conditions will always be a priority.

Callers to NHS 24 will initially have their symptoms triaged by a call handler before being passed on to a clinician within the Service or to another area of the health service best placed to meet their needs as appropriate.

Both Scottish Government and NHS 24 is committed to ensuring that the patients journey through the health care system is a quick as is possible and patient safety remains the key focus as we continue to enhance the 111 service.

Universities and colleges have a duty of care to support their students, and if any have experienced difficulty or have concerns about studying remotely they should contact their institution as soon as possible in order to access the support they need.

We are aware of the impact of the pandemic on student mental health and wellbeing, and have continued to address this, through that period, by providing additional funding to help students deal with the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, support to NUS Scotland and student associations for vital welfare support for students in colleges and universities and additional funding for colleges to help students and staff respond to the pandemic.

The Scottish Government is committed to the development of a research and evidence informed Student Mental Health Action Plan and we are re-establishing the Student Mental Health and Well Being Working Group to help take this forward.