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Scotland is making excellent progress in the winter vaccination programme, when compared to the other UK nations. The latest published figures show that, as at 6 th November, Scotland has provided 87.8% of older adult care home residents and 55.7% of those aged 50 and over with a winter COVID-19 vaccine.

While differences in the way statistics are collected means that the figures are not always directly comparable, England has reported an uptake of 58.0% among older adult care home residents, and 53.5% among those aged 50 and over as at 6 th November.

Scotland’s winter vaccination programme also compares favourably to that of Wales, where, according to the latest data, 80.4% of older adult care home residents and 53.0% of those aged 50 and over have taken up the offer of a winter COVID-19 vaccination.

On 11 November 2022, the First Minister and I represented the Scottish Government at the Summit meeting of the British-Irish Council hosted by the UK Government in Blackpool. The meeting was attended by Ministers from seven of the eight of the BIC Member Administrations with Northern Ireland represented by senior officials in an observational capacity.

The Prime Minister, who was attending for the separate Heads of Government Council meeting, welcomed delegates to Blackpool on the Thursday evening ahead of the Summit. The Summit meeting itself was chaired by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations, Michael Gove.

The Summit focussed on Sustainable Economic Growth and Regeneration, and on that topic I attended a site visit to the Lancashire Energy HQ. The Energy HQ is situated within the regenerated Blackpool Enterprise Zone and focusses on training and engineering skills for the sustainable energy sources industry. During the main Summit meeting I reflected on the visit and similar activity undertaken in Scotland to assist our just transition to net zero.

On the latest Political Developments item, the First Minster communicated views on the cost-of-living crisis, EU relations, the climate crisis and the ongoing situation in Ukraine. As well as the Heads of Government Council meeting with the PM and FM Wales, the First Minister also took the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings with Prime Minister and the Taoiseach.

The Communiqué that was issued by the British-Irish Council after the meeting can be found on its website at: www.britishirishcouncil.org

38th British-Irish Council Summit, UK Government

11 November 2022

Communiqué

The British-Irish Council (BIC) held its 38th Summit meeting today hosted by the UK Government in Blackpool. The Prime Minister opened the 38th British Irish Council Summit Programme, welcoming delegates to Blackpool on Thursday. A full list of Ministerial participants at the Summit meeting is attached.

As part of the programme, Ministers were invited to visit local businesses to set in context discussions at the plenary meeting on sustainable local growth, which the Secretary of State for Levelling Up chaired.

Latest Political Developments

The Council reflected on the latest political developments across their administrations, and took the opportunity to engage on a number of topics of mutual interest. These included the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the impact of the rising cost of living, shared climate and decarbonisation objectives, and ongoing relations with the EU. The Council received an update on Northern Ireland and looked forward to the restoration of the devolved institutions.

The Council also noted that 2023 would mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, and underlined the importance of supporting the effective functioning of all of the agreement’s institutions, including the British-Irish Council.

Sustainable Growth and Regeneration

The Council discussed the topic of sustainable growth and regeneration further during the Summit meeting, considering efforts underway across BIC Member Administrations to stimulate and support sustainable economic growth, the development of more inclusive communities, and to address pressures on housing in particular.

The Council took the opportunity to review recent thematic activity across the BIC’s work sectors aimed at supporting thriving local economies and building sustainable and resilient communities. The Council also noted the recent Ministerial meeting of the BIC Social Inclusion work sector, which took place in Cardiff and where Ministers considered how best administrations can support the growth and development of the Social Enterprise sector.

Next Summit Meeting

The Council noted that the next BIC Summit will be hosted by the Government of Jersey.

BIC Secretariat

11 November 2022

The Scottish Mental Health Law Review (commissioned by Scottish Government) published its final report at the end of September 2022 and set out substantial recommendations for reform. This included the current power of attorney process in Scotland. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that Scotland’s incapacity laws remain fully fit for purpose and will carefully consider these proposals as part of any wider reform of the mental health and incapacity legislative framework.

The Scottish Government has established a statutory public inquiry under the Inquiries Act (2005) to examine the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Scotland. The inquiry will provide scrutiny and establish the facts of the strategic response to the pandemic in Scotland. It will identify lessons and recommendations to help Scotland be as prepared as possible for future pandemics.

The National Partnership for Culture published its recommendations on 16 March 2022. These 14 recommendations were underpinned by principles for meaningful delivery such as pooling of experience and resources across different fields. In response we are taking forward a range of actions, which are detailed in full in our publication of 27 September 2022, available at: National Partnership for Culture recommendations: Scottish Government response - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . This includes strengthening cross-portfolio links in areas such as health and wellbeing to harness opportunities for collaboration, as well as taking forward actions with partners to support cohesive working between national and local organisations. The National Partnership for Culture will meet to discuss its future plans on 14 December 2022.

After initial planning work with transport partners and stakeholder, Transport Scotland officials are engaged in finalising the programme for the National Rail Conversation, including the first significant public phase, of external stakeholder engagement. This will see key stakeholders, including rail staff representatives, invited to a number of events in the New Year. These sessions will enable those taking part to offer their views on the National Rail Conversation. Further details of the programme will be provided at these even and announced in due course.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of appointments offered per full time equivalent GP.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) will publish data on activity levels in General Practice on 6 December 2022. This will include activity by encounter type. Encounters are recorded each time a member of the practice team enters information into the GP electronic health record. These include face to face consultations, telephone consultations, e-consultations, medicines management and administration.

The data will be published as experimental statistics, reflecting the developing nature of the data in relation to quality and ability to meet user needs.

PHS will also publish the GP In Hours General Practice Workforce Survey on 29 November 2022, which will provide estimates of GP workforce numbers.

While GP sessions have sometimes been defined for the purposes of various payments, there is no overall contractual definition of GP sessions.

GP contract regulations require practices to ensure provision of services from Monday- Friday, 08:00 - 18.30. It is up to the practice partners to agree how that is covered by GPs and the number and length of sessions.

We meet with developers every week, particularly in relation to the pilot Single Building Assessment programme and the development of The Accord.

The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12136 on
‎ 24 November 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers