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Twenty three ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers capable of the storage of medicines have been purchased, with at least one freezer in every territorial health board. Some boards will have more than one ULT freezer, for example three ULT freezers are being located in NHS Highland to account for the board’s geography and the current understood limitations on transporting the vaccine.

The total cost of the ULT freezers that have been purchased is £125,000. The freezers are not portable. The vaccines are packed in multi-dose vials which minimises the amount of storage space required. There is estimated to be sufficient capacity in the NHS Scotland estate to hold around 1 million doses of vaccine at any point in time. The capacity of the individual ULT freezers ranges from 101 litres to 729 litres. Due to their size and requirements these ULT freezers are not portable.

There is significant existing -8°C to +2°C refrigeration storage capacity within the NHS estate - both dedicated cold-stores in most hospital locations and stand-alone refrigeration in secondary and primary care locations. Fridges can be moved, for example to temporary walk-in and drive-through locations, as required. To support the seasonal flu programme and in preparation for the Covid-19 vaccine, 192 additional fridges, at a total cost of £210,000, have been sourced since August 2020.

If stability data supports the movement of the Pfizer vaccine to alternative locations at -8°C to +2°C, this will be managed using vaccine porters. These are specialist cool boxes that are validated to maintain temperature within a fixed range for a defined period of time. These are reusable and are used annually to support the seasonal flu campaign. Additional stock of vaccine porters and associated cool packs have been purchased to increase capacity to support the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine. The total cost of recent purchases of vaccine porters is approximately £186,000.

Information on diagnosis of sepsis is held centrally for patients admitted to hospital.

The following tables present the number of hospital stays with a diagnosis of sepsis at any point during the stay. This is listed by NHS Board of Treatment for the year 2019, and by month for year 2020 up to June. Note that due to changes to coding in October 2017 these figures are not directly comparable with those from previous years.

Table 1: Number of hospital stays 2 with a diagnosis of sepsis 3 ; NHS Scotland;

2019

The snags identified at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in 2019 have been resolved. However, snagging resolution is a feature of all works and as completion of current works are progressing there are new snagging items or changes that are monitored and resolved through normal processes.

RAF servicemen and women will be subject to COVID-19 travel restrictions outwith the 23 to 27 December period. However, as the First Minister stated to Parliament on 19 November, travel by armed forces personnel in Scotland to and from barracks and bases is exempt from restrictions as barracks and bases are, as elsewhere in the UK, classed as essential places of work. We are in close contact with the RAF who have confirmed that Scottish Government regulations are well understood and are being adhered to with no discrepancies.

Alarms with user replaceable batteries will not meet the standard. Alarms fitted with tamper proof long-life lithium batteries will meet the standard – as long as they are interlinked alarms, installed in the room most frequently used for daytime living purposes, all circulation spaces and kitchens - and can be installed by property owners without the need of contractors.

There are no current plans to review exemptions for jury duty.

The £30 million discretionary fund is specifically designed to target small businesses and the self-employed who have not received direct financial support through other Scottish Government financial support schemes since October. We have been working closely with local authorities to develop the discretionary fund to ensure that this additional financial support quickly reaches businesses that need it. Following agreement on allocations with CoSLA, we will shortly transfer funds to local authorities, it will then be for councils to undertake their own assessment of need and develop their applications processes according to this.

I refer the member to the travel exceptions document published on the 20 November 2020 which allows travel for healthcare. This is available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-travel-and-transport/#travellingsafely .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-33579 on 26 November 2020, in which the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills outlined the amending Regulations made to the Health Protection (Coronavirus)(Restrictions and Requirements)(Local Levels)(Scotland) Regulations 2020 to allow students to return home at the end of term.

From 27 November 2020, there is an exemption to the travel restrictions for students travelling to or from any local authority area in Scotland, if the purpose is to facilitate the formation of an "end of term household".

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Scottish Government guidance sets out the requirements that apply to arrangements used to transport children and young people to school. Typically, local authorities provide dedicated school transport services primarily for the use of school pupils. Following scientific advice from the COVID-19 Advisory Sub Group on Education and Children’s Issues, the guidance provides that dedicated school transport can be regarded as an extension of the school estate and it is not necessary to maintain physical distance between children and young people travelling on such services.

Where either young children travelling with their parents to nursery or school children are using public transport, these services are subject to the requirement to physically distance due to the range of ages of the passengers they are used by.