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The “Beyond the Glen” strategy for the Scottish venison sector is an industry-led strategy, the implementation of which is being co-ordinated by the Scottish Venison Association.

In common with other food and related rural businesses, the Covid pandemic has caused major uncertainty and market disruption in the last two years and has impacted on producer confidence and price. EU exit has also impacted on exports. Work on the strategy has been impacted but despite this, some good progress has been made, for example in exploring new routes for local chills, processing, and supply; developing market insight; and deer health research. Scottish Government funded £60,000 of online marketing in spring 2021 to support Scottish producers and processors. £80,000 has also been made available through the Covid Recovery Plan Opportunities Fund to create new local chill and processing units for wild venison.

The Scottish Government has raised this ambition even further, now aiming to support six islands to become fully carbon neutral by 2040.

Work has been ongoing with our External Technical Working Group to identify which islands will be part of the project. This group is made up of local authority officers and socio-economic wide stakeholders.

Announcements on which islands have been selected will be made in due course.

The “Beyond the Glen” strategy for the Scottish venison sector included an action to establish a “go to” Venison Hub for market research and industry technical advice. The Scottish Venison Association has taken on the role of the Venison Hub.

Information on the value of Chinese inward investments into Scotland can be found in the publicly available report Businesses in Scotland, which shows that there are currently 20 Chinese owned businesses in Scotland, with an estimated employment of 3,910 and a turnover of £1.33 billion. The Scottish Government does not disaggregate data based on the type of investment.

Scottish Government works with its enterprise agencies to ensure robust due diligence and proper consideration of human rights is undertaken on inward investments from China as well as from any other country. Additional safeguards are provided by the National Security and Investment Act 2021, which protects against acquisitions within sensitive areas of the economy that could cause harm to the UK’s national security.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the level of foreign direct investment from Scotland into China, or any other market.

The earlier cancer is diagnosed the easier it is to treat. This is why the Scottish Government continues to invest in our £44m Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme, which adopts a whole systems approach to diagnosing and treating cancer as early as possible. An additional £20m has been committed to the programme over this parliamentary term.

The Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer were published in 2019 and support primary care professionals in identifying patients with potential symptoms of cancer who require urgent assessment by a specialist. These include guidelines for suspected sarcoma.

In addition, Scotland’s first three Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres are now live in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Fife. These Centres provide primary care with a new referral route for patients with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer (i.e. weight loss, fatigue, nausea), which do not meet site specific Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07634 on 21 April 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

It is recognised that television provides respite to many patients, and that technology plays a critical role in enabling patients to remain connected with the outside world. NHS Scotland’s patient entertainment services currently vary, dependant on location and specialities of the hospital sites and all Boards are expected to assess and adopt a patient-centred approach when considering local provision.

Free-of-charge entertainment services may include television on wards, in day rooms and at the bedside and Wi-Fi to enable access to free, non-subscription media services linked to the terrestrial television channels. Loan devices, such as tablets, may also be available where patients do not have an appropriate device of their own.

The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) have worked with Health Boards to support their planning and safe delivery of immunisation services throughout the pandemic.

The routine childhood immunisation programmes have continued in Scotland throughout the COVID-19 pandemic for children of all ages.

Uptake for vaccines given to children has remained consistently high in Scotland. Statistics on childhood immunisations published quarterly by PHS show that around 96% of children had received each routine immunisation by the time they were 12 months of age in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Uptake of the first dose of MMR by the age of 24 months also increased, rising from 94% in 2019 to 94.4% in 2021.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, HPV and Teenage booster programmes were delayed due to school closures. Pupils who were not offered their vaccines or who missed the immunisation sessions at school, are being offered these vaccines during planned catch-up sessions arranged by their Health Boards.

The Seasonal Flu Vaccination Programme ran from 6 September 2021 to 31 March 2022. On 15 December 2021, flu delivery was paused to support further acceleration of the COVID-19 booster programme. Prior to the end of the year, Health Boards had already offered flu vaccinations in primary and secondary schools, and to children under 5 with at risk conditions.

The most recent PHS publications can be found online: Publications - Public Health Scotland

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07632 on 19 April 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