Seòmar agus comataidhean

The safety of children, young people and education staff remains our overriding priority. All school pupils have already been impacted dramatically over the course of the pandemic so we remain committed to minimising any further disruption to learning.

New data and evidence is regularly emerging, informing our understanding of virus transmission in different settings, including schools and nurseries. This is considered very carefully by the Advisory Sub-group on Education and Children’s Issues alongside rates of vaccination and the specific level of risks associated with education environments and in wider society. This means that Scottish Government guidance for schools is developed in close consultation with clinical and public health experts, as well as taking into account the views of a number of education and other stakeholders who sit on the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group (CERG).

The guidance has recently been updated to reflect the advice of the Advisory Sub-group, including the removal of the requirement for staff and pupils to wear face coverings in the classroom and the easing of specific mitigations relating to assemblies and transition visits for learners who are to be starting Primary or Secondary school in August 2022. This represents the most up to date position in relation to protection measures in schools, which will commence from 28 February.

We will continue to be guided by the evidence in assessing any continued risk from COVID-19 and take into consideration any new evidence linking the development of other conditions, such as type 1 diabetes in children, to infection with COVID-19.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living in Scotland with Cystic Fibrosis is able to access the best possible care and support for their mental health.

As Cystic Fibrosis is a complex condition that affects individuals in different ways, people of all ages will have access to Specialist Cystic Fibrosis Centres and be cared for by a team of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals with specialised knowledge. Cystic Fibrosis Centres in Scotland include a Clinical Psychologist as part of the multidisciplinary team who can provide mental health support to the patient and their family.

Further emotional support can be accessed via the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and a resource detailing support for people on the impact of Kaftrio is available online via their website.

I welcome the reports from Royal Society of Chemistry on making Polymers in Liquid Formulations (PLFs) more sustainable, helping to raise awareness of the complex issues around sustainable paint, and waste management.

Zero Waste Scotland provide further detail on what to with used paint and paint cans here: What to do with used paint | Recycling | How to Waste Less . Zero Waste Scotland also work through Revolve to promote the wider reuse of items and materials and help raise awareness of responsible consumption.

This service provision supplements social enterprise and third sector initiatives running paint collection and redistribution reuse networks for waste paint.

I welcome the report from Royal Society of Chemistry on making Polymers in Liquid Formulations (PLFs) more sustainable, helping to embed circular economy in to this area.

The Scottish Government is committed to building a fully circular economy as part of our work to tackle the climate emergency.

To make the most of this opportunity, we are working with industry, including construction and demolition sectors, local government, environmental groups and wider stakeholders to develop a Route Map to deliver our waste and recycling targets to 2025 and beyond. Through the Route Map and the forthcoming Circular Economy Bill we will consider how best to take forward waste reduction and ensure circular economy approach across a range of waste streams.

As the 2021-22 season is ongoing, NatureScot do not yet have a complete picture of the number of deer culled and so it is not possible to give an accurate assessment of the impact of Covid-19 restrictions. NatureScot will publish cull return data for 2021-22 once the season is over and returns have been received.

Work to implement the recommendations of the Deer Working Group is underway. A project board has been established under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Programme. Further details about this work will be made available in due course, including arrangements for the involvement of external stakeholders.

NatureScot, in their role as Scotland’s deer authority, gather and publish data on annual deer cull returns.

Formal cull return requests are now being issued for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. The requests were delayed due to difficulties in sending out cull return requests as a result of Covid-19 measures. Once those completed returns have been received annual deer cull returns will then be published.

As the 2021-22 season is ongoing, cull return requests for this year have not yet been issued.

The Scottish Government recognises the difficulties facing Scotland’s cities and businesses as a result of the global pandemic as highlighted in the Centre for Cities report. The Scottish Government has provided more than £4.4 billion of business support since March 2020. This includes COVID-19 non-domestic rates reliefs which have saved businesses around £1.6bn in reduced rates bills since 1 April 2020. In addition last year, we awarded £2m directly to our cities through the City Centre Recovery Fund, to kick-start their recovery.

The Omicron variant in late 2021 further impacted on city centre recovery and has exacerbated the economic challenges faced by our city centres and their businesses. As such, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance announced an additional £3m of funding this financial year through the City Centre Recovery Fund on 10 February. These monies will support all seven cities build sustainable recovery for their centres and their businesses and will take forward the priorities of the City Centre Recovery Task Force.

Work to increase standardisation since the Scottish Government’s Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-22 to 2025-26 was published, can be seen in the announced Invitation to Tender (17 December 2021) for two new ferries for Islay and the continuing work as part of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme (SVRP) that will see up to 7 vessels replaced on the west coast as part of Phase 1 of the programme.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) are taking forward the SVRP and are currently working with the appointed naval architects (Navalue) who are providing consultancy services for the concept design stage as well as investigating and evaluating the feasibility of designing low emission ferries to be in line with the Scottish Government climate change and standardisation commitments.

We also continue to support the vessel resilience funding that can be spent on replacing obsolete equipment on existing vessels.