Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government fully recognises the value to our visitor economy of the holiday and caravan park sector and continues to engage with it through the relevant industry associations, including the British Holiday & Home Parks Association (BH&HPA).

On 10 June, the Scottish Government announced its proposals for a provisional timeframe of the week of 15 July for the opening of the tourism and hospitality sector, including caravan park owners, in line with Phase 3 of the Route-map. This reopening is conditional on the scientific and public health evidence supporting the move at the time. The BH&HPA have played a part in its development, as well as developing their own, sector specific guidance that will align to the wider guidance.

To aid the sector and its customers, the Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning and the Chief Planner jointly wrote to local authorities allowing for and encouraging temporary relaxations in planning measures and to apply discretion in granting licenses, including the closed periods for holiday parks.

The Scottish Government has continued to engage with the dairy sector in Scotland including the NFUS, Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and Dairy UK, throughout the Covid 19 period. Whilst we recognise that the sector has been impacted, it is clear from these discussions and market data that Scotland continues to be less affected than other parts of the UK. The Scottish Government has provided a financial contribution to the joint AHDB and Dairy UK marketing campaign to increase milk consumption throughout the UK, and we continue to engage with the industry and monitor the market data to determine if any further support will be required for the sector.

The statutory redress scheme for survivors of historical abuse in care is in development and has not opened for applications. Eligibility criteria have not been finalised and as such no advice has been, or could be, offered to survivors on what these will be.

No applications for the Advance Payments Scheme have been turned down because of a lack of evidence.

In both schemes, applicants will be given support to access the information required. All relevant and available information and records will be taken into account. Assessments of eligibility will not rest simply on records available from organisations running care establishments or residential schools.

As the national online service for learners, Glow is subject to rigorous assessment of the balance of benefits and risks. Education Scotland are acutely aware of the dangers of the online world and Glow seeks to provide all learners with a safer environment in which to develop their digital skills. This will help them to learn how to navigate and manage the online world which will be such a vital part of their future learning, work and social lives.

The circumstances in which we are now living and working are not normal and we are adapting and adjusting to those. Children and young people have transitioned to learning from home and they are often working in an environment that is not as controlled as their school network. Recognising this, Education Scotland have implemented increased monitoring and expedited planned security enhancements to reduce the overall risk that the COVID 19 crisis poses to the Glow environment.

In addition, guidance has been produced in collaboration by Education Scotland and National Parent Forum Scotland to support parents/carers in creating a safer online environment for learning at home.

Education Scotland continue to work with local authorities to ensure parents are more fully informed and will continue to monitor the Glow environment to ensure the appropriate level of benefit and risk is maintained.

The Scottish Government fully acknowledges the critical role that coaches play in supporting tourism, whether directly providing holidays, or taking passengers from cruise ships to visitor attractions.

We have engaged directly with the industry through the Confederation of Passenger Transport UK, to both discuss its concerns and direct the sector to appropriate support.

This includes assistance through our £2.3 billion package of measures to support Scottish businesses during this difficult time, including access where applicable to business grants and through the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund.

We also continue to press the UK Government on the need to assist our tourism sector, and have specifically raised the needs of the coach industry to them, underlining the vital support that they provide.

The Confederation is also part of the Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA), who represent the tourism industry on the Scottish Government's Scottish Tourism Emergency Response Group. Through this, coach interests have been taken into account in the delivery of the National Action Plan developed to respond to impacts on the sector.

We have been in regular contact with representatives of Local Authorities during the COVID-19 emergency about the continued operation of the planning system, including the undertaking of neighbour notification and the publication of information about planning applications. The Scottish Government considers that existing requirements for neighbour notification remain appropriate at the present time but continues to monitor the situation.

Access to on-line information by members of the public not required to be notified in writing remains unaffected by the current situation, however, we have encouraged planning authorities to consider allowing additional flexibility with timescales for interested parties to make representations.

Saving lives is at the forefront of the Government's response and in the interests of patients' safety, healthcare professionals have been re-deployed to provide critical care to seriously ill people and the risk of spreading infection has been minimised by restricting General Practitioner (GP)/ hospital visits for non-urgent appointments. The British Society for Haematology (BSH) has recently published guidance on B12 treatment - https://b-s-h.org.uk/media/18275/bsh-guidance-b12-replacement-covid-1901052020finalv.pdf . This advises that GPs should use their clinical judgement to consider if changes are appropriate during the pandemic and to discuss and agree a personalised plan with individual patients that are affected. This may be to decrease the frequency of injections to minimise visits to GP practices or hospitals. Alternatively, there are situations where it is possible for people to self-inject hydroxocobalamin if their GP or health professional agree this would be suitable.

The Scottish Government most recently commissioned a review into the specific impact of anaerobic digestion and bio-energy on the availability of distillery by-product for use as livestock feed was published in July 2019 and can be found at the following web page:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/distillery-products-livestock-feed-bio-energy-use-scotland/pages/12/ .

Separately, we continue to monitor the situation through the Farm Business Survey and provide Scotland’s farmers and crofters with guidance through the Farm Advisory Service on optimising feed for livestock.

As announced on 8 April 2020, we have introduced a £5 million package of emergency financial support to help students facing hardship as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. This £5 million includes an additional £2.2 million for Scotland’s Higher Education (HE) Discretionary Funds specifically to address COVID-19 related hardships, which has been made available to colleges and universities immediately.

University and college students are able to apply for any emergency discretionary payments directly to their own institutions. This support is also available to students from the rest of the UK (rUK) currently studying at Scottish institutions.

The UK Government have confirmed that they are working with the Office for Students, the regulator in England, to help English higher education providers reallocate funding towards their hardship funds for all students in need of additional support.

It may also be helpful to note that the University of Cumbria’s hardship fund for students who are experiencing financial difficulty is available to all UK students. I have included a link to the relevant page of their website below:

https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/student-finance/support-funds/