Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government are following the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Guidance in the planning of vaccine delivery. This evidence based guidance advises that the single greatest risk of mortality from COVID-19 is increasing age, and that the risk increases exponentially with age. Additionally the committee considers frontline health and social care workers who provide direct care to vulnerable people a high priority for vaccination.

Currently there is no sectoral prioritisation of any workers other than frontline health and social care workers. This is because we don’t know if the vaccine prevents spread, but it does reduce the harm to those most at risk should they catch the virus. Individual members of the police force as with other occupations will be called forward for vaccination according to their position on the priority list, if they are eligible within the JCVI Cohorts.

(a) This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government or Police Scotland.

(b) Freshwater pearl mussels are a UK wildlife crime priority species, with a dedicated sub-group within the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW) Scotland. Their work includes projects to install cameras on freshwater pearl mussel colonies considered to be at high risk from criminal activity, deterrent signage at key locations and awareness-raising activities including joint river patrols between Police Scotland and local fishery boards.

In addition, Police Scotland have held training and awareness days for officers on threats to freshwater pearl mussels.

The Scottish Government has invested over £32m in public charging infrastructure, throughout the country, to build a diverse vehicle charging network (ChargePlace Scotland); in close collaboration with Scotland’s Local Authorities. Scotland has one of the most comprehensive EV charging networks in Europe, with consumers benefiting from a variety of developments in charging technologies, including rapid chargers and contactless payments.

Funding is continuing to be made available to ensure the network is upgraded where appropriate and fit-for-purpose. We are also supporting innovation in the sector, through initiatives such as Project Pace, a joint project with Scottish Power networks to deliver state of the art electric vehicle charging in a way that also optimises investment in the electricity grid.

The electric vehicle market is evolving quickly, with increasing opportunities for commercial investors and new business models to support the deployment of emerging technologies, which we will continue to encourage alongside our own investments in ChargePlace Scotland.

The overall package of measures within each level of the Strategic Framework is designed to suppress the virus as far as possible whilst minimising broader harms. The Scottish Government will keep the protective measures in all levels under review to ensure that they remain necessary and proportionate to address the ongoing public health emergency. The new COVID-19 variant means the level of the virus overall is much higher than we need it to be and therefore restrictions have had to be strengthened.

The Scottish Government commissioned Blake Stevenson to carry out the independent evaluation of the Scottish Autism Strategy.

Blake Stevenson plan to hold workshops in local authorities to evaluate the impact of the strategy at local level. The local authority areas invited were proposed by Blake Stevenson’s independent research team though a desk-based review to include a balanced representation of geographical areas across Scotland.

Local authorities participating in the evaluation are as follows:

1. North Lanarkshire

2. Fife

3. Edinburgh

4. Highland

5. East Dunbartonshire

6. Midlothian

7. Dumfries & Galloway

8. Glasgow

9. Area yet to be confirmed.

If any unselected local authority wants to participate in the evaluation then they should contact Blake Stevenson, directly. The evaluation will be published in May 2021.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Authorised post-mortem examinations are undertaken for deaths in hospitals by NHS Boards, where the cause of death is unknown, to establish the medical cause of death. Requests for information on hospital post-mortems should be made to NHS Boards.

Post mortems are also undertaken under the direction of the Procurator Fiscal (PF) for relevant cases as part of the investigation into death. This is a matter for the Lord Advocate. Requests for information on PF post-mortems should be made to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS)

The Scottish Government will provide the necessary funding across health and care services to recognise the additional costs of responding to COVID-19, to support remobilisation of services, and to ensure that patient and staff safety remains the top priority at all times.

We have extending asymptomatic testing for designated visitors as an added measure alongside PPE and Infection Prevention Control. We are distributing testing kits, and associated training, to all care homes across Scotland.

In addition, we have allocated a total of £150 million this year to support care homes with the additional requirements of PPE, testing and safety reporting.

Our Winter Plan recognises that to ensure winter preparedness this year, that additional resources will be required and the Plan is being supported by further funding of up to £112 million. We are working with COSLA, and wider partners, immediately on effective allocation of this funding through mechanisms that promote additionality of services and value for money.

The cycle threshold (Ct) can be used as an indicator of the concentration of viral genetic material in a patient sample; a typical PCR assay will have a maximum of 40 thermal cycles. Ct values are not directly comparable between assays and may not be reported by some PCR platforms in use. Individual laboratories will hold details of the Ct reached for each individual specimen who will have quality systems in place to ensure the veracity of the results.

No laboratory test is 100% accurate. The laboratory tests being used to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Scotland are real-time RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) assays which are the gold standard for respiratory viruses.

The likelihood of false positives arising is dependent on a number of factors such as the overall prevalence of infection in the population, the clinical presentation of disease in the person sampled, and quality of the sampling method.

NHS Scotland Laboratories have a protocol in place to carry out confirmation testing (or repeat testing) in certain circumstances to confirm whether low positive test results should be reported as positive or negative. Public Health Scotland have produced guidance for sampling and laboratory investigations to minimise reporting of false positives occurring: https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/web-resources-container/covid-19-guidance-for-sampling-and-laboratory-investigations

UK Government Laboratories (Lighthouse) also have similar quality procedure systems in place to minimise false positives but are unable to repeat test low positive results.

A clinical and Scientific Review of our testing strategy was published on 23 October in light of the latest evidence of the state of the epidemic in Scotland and the latest understanding of testing capacity and demand forecasts in the next three months. We will continue to keep our testing strategy under review in line with the changing nature of the epidemic in Scotland. Further information on the review of the strategy can be found here:

https://www.gov.scot/news/clinical-and-scientific-review-of-testing/

The Scottish Government is not currently planning to test everyone who has been diagnosed with Covid-19 for antibodies.

There is currently no clinical certainty around what proportion of people may have a detectable antibody response following infection, and also how long detectable levels of antibodies remain following infection. Therefore a negative antibody test result does not confirm that a previous diagnosis of Covid-19 was incorrect.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests being used for diagnosing Covid-19 detect the viral genetic sequence of the causative virus SARS-CoV-2. These tests are very sensitive and the gold standard for respiratory viruses. They are specific and shown not to detect other coronaviruses and have been tested on large panels of negative clinical samples.

In Scotland we are using antibody tests to improve our understanding of COVID-19, and in the clinical management of patients, where appropriate. Clinicians have the discretion to request an antibody test for an individual if they determine the result will be of benefit to the treatment or clinical management of a patient.