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Since the emergence of the Omicron, the Scottish Government has undertaken a series of regular meetings with NHS Chief Executives to discuss contingency and resilience planning. These include meetings that were Chaired by the NHS Scotland Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer as well as regular meetings between health and social care officials and NHS Scotland Chief Executives. The System Response Group meetings also include representations from wider stakeholder interests and Local Government.

I have held regular update meetings to discuss System Pressures to which all Boards are invited. I have also held meetings with COSLA and officials every Monday to receive updates on the Winter Package.

Finally, I held a number of meetings with specific Local Authorities, Health Boards and HSCPs on a one to one basis where the need arose.

These meeting dates are detailed in the following table:

The Scottish Government recognises that COVID-19 is an unprecedented global crisis, leaving no part of the world unaffected. Although Scotland is not a member of the COVAX scheme, we will continue engaging with the UK Government on that 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.

In December 2020 we provided international development funding to support vaccine preparedness and delivery, including £2M to UNICEF in 2020 to help vaccine distribution, roll-out and online healthcare education in our partner countries.

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 responses as part of our strategic response.

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

The Scottish Government has been working in partnership with the Association of Directors of Education, COSLA and partners to establish the full delivery and financial requirements in support of the expansion of free school meals. Through this engagement, it has been confirmed that there is a requirement for capital and resource investment in order to support the expansion, including for catering and dining.

In addition to £53 million per year for universal provision in primary 1-3, the 2022-23 budget includes £42.2 million of revenue funding for the expansion of primary 4, 5 and special schools, and £30 million capital allocation for initial investment in school kitchens ahead of roll-out of free lunches to all primary school children during in the parliamentary term.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with partners in local authorities to plan for the expansion of free school lunch provision over the next academic year. This work will ensure the expansion can be delivered equitably across all schools, in all areas, whilst maintaining high quality lunch provision for pupils.

Key recommendations in the Heart Valve Voice report State of the Nation included:

1) collecting standardised data for HVD.

2) focus on HVD in campaigns to raise awareness of disease in women.

3) developing an optimal patient pathway for HVD.

4) improving access to echocardiography.

1) The Heart Disease Action Plan (2021) clearly sets out our priority for the effective use of high-quality, standardised data to support clinical decision-making, understand patient outcomes and enable better service-planning. In April 2021, we commissioned Public Health Scotland to develop the Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme. We have committed more than £1.5m over five years to support this transformative change in access to, and use of, data to drive improvement in cardiac services.

2) We have made clear commitments to tackling the inequalities faced by women with heart disease in our Women’s Health Plan, including the launch of an information campaign on women’s heart health. Future development of work in this area will be informed by the lived experience of women with heart disease.

3) Priority 2 within the Heart Disease Action Plan makes clear our commitment to developing nationally agreed pathways of care for all cardiac conditions. This work is underway.

4) We recognise the importance of improving access to echocardiography and are taking action to address this. Through the Heart Disease Action Plan funding call in 2021, we provided funding for a project exploring how to improve access to echocardiography.

The 2022-23 draft budget provides £42.2 million to provide universal free school lunches to all children in primaries 4, 5 and special schools to 5 during school term-time. This is in addition to the £53 million per year for universal provision for pupils in primary 1 to 3 which has been in place since 2015. The 2022-23 draft budget includes a £30 million capital allocation for initial investment in school kitchens ahead of roll-out of free lunches to all primary school children (P1-P7) later in the parliamentary term. We will continue to work with our partners in local authorities to plan for the further expansion of free school lunch provision over the next academic year.

The draft budget also provides £21.75 million to provide support to free school meals eligible families during the school holidays.

The Heart Disease Action Plan outlines our commitment to exploring innovative models of care for cardiac diagnosis. Through the Heart Disease Action Plan Funding call in 2021, we provided funding for a second NHS board to implement aspects of the OPERA study within its local service provision.

The learning from this will be fed into ongoing work by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery to better understand the opportunities for implementation of OPERA in other NHS Boards, through pathfinder work via the new Accelerated National Innovation Adoption pathway.

Where it is clinically appropriate to do so, patients of all ages will be examined with a stethoscope to listen for breathing and heart sounds. They may also have ECG electrical recordings of their heart rate, blood tests and have access to other investigations such as echocardiograms, rhythm monitors and blood pressure recordings, should these be required.

The Heart Disease Action Plan (2021) outlines our commitment to exploring innovative models of care for the diagnosis of heart disease, including a focus on improving access to echocardiography in the most appropriate setting for local needs.

Police Scotland have advised there are currently over 250 body worn cameras in use within North East Division. In addition, Police Scotland also equipped its Armed Policing officers ahead of COP26. In total 4.6 % of officers are currently equipped with Body worn Video (BWV). A consultation on a wider roll-out of body worn cameras closed in September 2021 and work is ongoing by Police Scotland to consider a national introduction.

The Scottish Government provided one off funding of £0.5m in 2021-22 to the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), to support the use of body-worn cameras for specialist officers for COP26.

For 2022-23, the total budget for policing is almost £1.4 billion, including an additional £40.5m increase in resource funding. The allocation of resources is a matter for the Scottish Police Authority and the Chief Constable.

The Scottish Government has not carried out an assessment of any potential need for a public awareness campaign on the symptoms of heart valve disease.

However, the Heart Disease Action Plan, published in 2021, clearly sets out our strategic direction to minimise preventable heart disease and ensure that everyone with suspected heart disease in Scotland has timely and equitable access to diagnosis, treatment and care. This includes prioritizing the awareness of risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Further, we have made commitments in the Women’s Health Plan to improve information and public awareness of heart disease symptoms and risks for women.

We announced on 14 February an agreement with the UK Government to deliver two Green Freeports in Scotland, working on an equal partnership basis. A package of reserved and devolved support will be available in the selected Green Freeports ensuring that Scotland can build globally competitive industrial clusters in the green industries of the future, deliver a just transition to net-zero, and create new high-quality, well-paid employment opportunities delivering Fair Work, including payment of the real living wage.

A competitive bidding process will be launched soon, with the winners to be announced later this year. As this will be a competitive, open and transparent process, I cannot prejudge this by commenting on possible locations.