Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government has been working collaboratively with public and third sector partners to create and disseminate COVID-19-related information to asylum seekers and refugees in relevant languages and accessible formats. Given the fast-moving nature of coronavirus-related guidance, we took into consideration the lead time with translations and the danger of out-of-date messages being shared and distributed, and focused on working in partnership to create and distribute key coronavirus information to benefit the wider community.

1. The Scottish Government works closely with NHS 24 and Public Health Scotland to ensure key public health information on COVID-19 is available in 17 languages and accessible formats via the NHS Inform website, which is Scotland’s central repository for public health information.

2. In July 2021 Dari and Pashto translations were added to NHS Inform in response to the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.

3. In addition to NHS Inform, the COVID helpline provides interpreter services to support engagement with people whose first language is not English.

4. COVID-19 National Door Drops that have been sent to all homes in Scotland for Covid-19, Test and Protect and COVID-19 Vaccines and Right Care Right Place were created in key languages for asylum seekers and refugees as identified by partners.

5. We have been working in partnership with NHS Scotland and Public Health Scotland to spread the message of available translations and formats. Organisations reached include: Scottish Refugee Council; BEMIS (the national umbrella body supporting the development of the Ethnic Minorities Voluntary Sector in Scotland); NHS Lothian Minority Ethnic Inclusion Service (MEHIS); British Red Cross; Inclusion Scotland; Scottish Independent Living Coalition (SILC); Progress in Dialogue; Article 12.

6. SG and PHS have engaged with various organisations including the Scottish Refugee Council to get feedback on how to maximise COVID-19 vaccine uptake with asylum seekers and refugees, and in response to identified needs, videos, a Statement of Facts sheet and informed consent information have been developed in relevant languages to provide information about issues identified as concerns across a range of population groups in Scotland.

Scotland is committed to supporting refugees, asylum seekers and our communities through the pioneering and collaborative approach of the New Scots refugee integration strategy. The New Scots strategy is built on partnership and collaboration, led by the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Scottish Refugee Council and involves a wide range of partners across different sectors. The second New Scots strategy was published in January 2018 and runs until December 2022. Partners have begun discussions on arrangements to develop the third strategy, with the aim of publishing this in 2023.

In 2020 the New Scots partnership secured EU funding for a project to enhance delivery of the New Scots strategy. In August 2021 we announced the award of £2.8 million in grants to refugee projects which support New Scots. In total, 56 projects are receiving funding to deliver initiatives designed to help New Scots settle in their new communities by promoting employability, education, health and social and cultural connections.

The Scottish Government is also providing funding of £940,058 in 2021-22 from the Connected Communities budget to organisations working with refugees and asylum seekers.

In 2021-22 our investment in support of General Practice of £155 million (through the Primary Care Improvement Fund) demonstrates the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to the development of multi-disciplinary teams to support general practice. This investment will free up GP and GP practice staff time to focus on complex care in the community, including treating patients with long COVID. On top of this we have made additional winter funding available to Health Boards to allow the recruitment of extra Primary Care pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists and other MDT staff.

No specific assessment has been undertaken to assess the impact of Scottish Landfill Tax on the quantity of waste soil going to landfill.

Statistics published by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) show that the overall amount of waste going to landfill has reduced from around 4.2 million tonnes in 2015 to around 2.6 million tonnes in 2020. The amount of soil going to landfill has also reduced over the same period, from around 1.24 million tonnes to around 0.83 million tonnes. Statistics for 2020 will however have been affected by the impact of Covid-19 restrictions.

The SEPA waste statistics are available at www.sepa.org.uk/environment/waste/waste-data/waste-data-reporting/ .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04786 on 15 December 2021. 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 .

Police Scotland collate missing persons statistics and have provided information from the legacy National Missing Person Database and the current National Missing Person Application which is used to record data on missing people.

Prior to 2016 missing persons incidents recorded by the Police Scotland were recorded and broken down by police divisional areas not by individual local authorities. From 2016 Police Scotland has been recording and reporting both missing persons incidents and missing persons episodes.

A missing person incident is an instance where Police Scotland receive a call reporting a missing person and the incident is logged on the command and control system (STORM). A missing person episode is when someone is reported missing to Police Scotland and a police investigation is then initiated and recorded.

Therefore, depending on the circumstances, a missing person incident may or may not become a missing person episode, such as when someone is reported missing and found quickly without the need for a full investigation.

The information the member has asked for can be broken down as follows:

Missing Person Incidents recorded in each police division from 2010.

There are no proposals to rewrite or remove questions contained in the Health and Wellbeing Census.

I also refer the member to the answer given to S6W-04878 on 17 December 2021 regarding the appropriateness of the Census questions.

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

Soil that is classified as hazardous is always chargeable at the standard rate of Scottish Landfill Tax. Therefore no hazardous soils should have been subject to the lower rate of Scottish Landfill Tax.

Statistics published by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) show that the volume of hazardous soil landfilled in Scotland has declined significantly since 2015, reducing from 27,209 tonnes to 3,921 tonnes in 2020.

Scottish Forestry has published a breakdown, by local authority area, of new woodland creation planted in the last full financial year.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing clear information and support for people with long COVID. To help raise awareness of symptoms and signpost people to appropriate support, a marketing campaign ran in October and November 2021. The campaign budget was invested in: print and production of campaign posters for display in community pharmacies and GP surgeries across Scotland, language translations, social media posts and a campaign toolkit sent to 250 direct partner contacts with additional distribution of approximately 3,000 contacts.

The campaign directed people to the long COVID microsite hosted by NHS Inform, accessible at www.nhsinform.scot/long-covid . The microsite had nearly 86,000 users during the campaign period.