Seòmar agus comataidhean

Further the government’s answer to question S6W-01541 by Shona Robison on 10 August, my officials have now received a complete response from members of the Building Standards (Fire Safety) Review panel.

Of those responses:

• 1 member of the 2018-19 panel (21 members) and 3 members of the 2020-21 panel (26 members) had a role in designing BS 8414; and
• 1 member of the 2018-19 panel (21 members) and 3 members of the 2020-21 panel (26 members) have worked for organisations that carry out BS 8414 fire tests on behalf of commercial sponsors.

In November 2020, we announced that the Rural and Island Housing Fund would be extended beyond March 2021 with up to £30 million made available to support development of affordable homes in rural and island areas across Scotland in the current Parliamentary term.

The fund is part of the wider Affordable Housing Supply Programme which supports delivery of affordable homes across Scotland including in rural and island areas.

accines are approved through an established four nations basis framework and the current approved vaccines are those used by the NHS as part of the UK rollout, as well as those approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or from an eligible country using the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen vaccines. We do not currently accept others such as the Sinopharm vaccine at this time. This is based on clinical advice and represents a consistent approach across the four nations.

To qualify under the fully vaccinated rules for travel to Scotland, you must have been fully vaccinated with a full course of an approved vaccine under:

• the UK or UK overseas vaccination programme
• the United Nations vaccine programme for staff and volunteers
• an approved programme in one of the programmes found on the link below

Approved COVID-19 vaccines and countries with approved COVID-19 proof of vaccination - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Those who do not meet the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility criteria must continue to take a pre-departure test, self-isolate for 10 days upon arrival and take day 2 and 8 tests. All arrivals from red list countries must continue to book and stay for 10 days in a managed isolation hotel.

Travel restrictions are in place to prevent cases of COVID-19 being imported to Scotland. Travel restrictions will be in place as long as they are required and Scottish Government will continue to liaise with affected groups and stakeholders over any restrictions and exemptions that may apply.

To qualify under the fully vaccinated rules for travel to Scotland, you must have been fully vaccinated with a full course of an approved vaccine under:

• the UK or UK overseas vaccination programme
• the United Nations vaccine programme for staff and volunteers

Approved COVID-19 vaccines and countries with approved COVID-19 proof of vaccination - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

As part of our work to implement rent controls during the course of this Parliament, we will examine and consider a wide range of information, evidence and expert views, including submissions to the Scottish Parliament's Non-Government Bills Unit on fair rents, to inform the policy development of this important area of work.

Since 25 January 2019, a period largely covered by Covid restrictions, there have been the following cases referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) for consideration of prosecution:

Should an incident reported to Police Scotland involve criminality then this will be recorded and investigated by Police Scotland, and therefore be included in the Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics published by the Scottish Government. The recorded crime statistics include several types of crime in relation to the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 as detailed below.

In 2020-21, Police Scotland recorded:

• 92 crimes of slavery or forced labour (under sections 1 and 4 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015)
• Zero human organ crimes (under section 1 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015)
• 23 crimes of immoral traffic (under section 1 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015, section 22 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 and section 11 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995)
• 1 breach of Trafficking & Exploitation Order crime (under section 32 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015)

The Scottish Government only holds data on chargepoint installation on our ChargePlace Scotland network. Data is available by local authority and not at a community or settlement level. The following table sets out the breakdown of charging by local authority as at September 2021.

The primary objective of the Autumn and Winter vaccination programme is to maintain protection against severe COVID-19 and seasonal flu, specifically reducing the risk of hospitalisation and deaths, by protecting the most vulnerable.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) provided final advice on COVID-19 vaccination boosters on the 14 th of September with the first doses being administered from the following week. Which are being delivered alongside primary vaccinations for
‎ 12 to 15 year olds and many others.

The Member will be aware that delivery of booster vaccinations will run alongside our seasonal flu vaccination programme, which is the largest seasonal flu programme ever delivered in Scotland. Based on JCVI advice, we are working from the highest risk to lower risk groups and we are aiming, wherever possible, to offer both booster and flu jabs in a single appointment. This may mean that some lower risk groups (for example someone aged 64) may hear about their flu appointment from late October and be called to an appointment in November, which is a little later than would have been the case for a traditional flu only appointment. This is still ahead of the risk period and means that, wherever possible, people need only to come to one appointment for both vaccines.

While we have made a good start to the flu and booster vaccinations with over 686,248 flu delivered up to October 17th , 539,832 boosters and 8.2 million primary doses delivered as at October 26 th . But we continue to explore all avenues to accelerate our vaccinations activity as a matter of urgency.

For Covid-19 boosters - We are currently offering vaccination to those in older adult care homes; those who have the highest health risks (clinically extremely vulnerable); those age 70 years and over; frontline health and social are staff.

NHS Borders are utilising the National Vaccine Scheduling Service (NVSS) to schedule appointments for vaccination. NHS Borders like other health boards commenced from the week of the 20th of September, their Covid-19 boosters. From this week we are starting to send out invites for those in the next groups, which are those age 60-69 year and those 16+ years with underlying health conditions. before opening up a public portal in mid-November for everyone else who is eligible.

There is a clear gender gap in business participation and the Scottish Government is committed to closing that gap, unlocking the full economic potential of women in enterprise, and to supporting women into work and business. We have brought a range of measure to encourage and support employers to take action such as our Women Returners Programme which will see up to 1,500 women return to the workforce. We are also committed to developing an ambitious plan for the Women’s Business Centre, backed by an investment of up to £50m to ensure that women are fully supported to realise their business ambitions.