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The pandemic has seen the NHS under the most severe pressure in its 73-year existence. Pausing of non-urgent activity has taken place in health systems across Scotland, and the UK, which has inevitably led to a build-up of the numbers of people waiting for treatment.

Through the NHS Recovery Plan, the Scottish Government continues to work with Health Boards, including NHS Grampian to support and prioritise recovery for planned care.

While NHS Grampian is working locally to increase capacity and reduce waiting times for patients waiting for surgery, specifically prioritising Cardiac Surgery wherever possible, the Golden Jubilee National Hospital has been providing dedicated additional capacity for people waiting on cardiac surgery. This has paused briefly due to staffing pressures at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital as a result of the pandemic but will be reinstated as soon as possible.

Where a patients procedure is cancelled, NHS Grampian will try to reschedule this as soon as possible.

We are facilitating discussion with NHS Tayside and NHS Grampian to work towards opening additional capacity at Stracathro Regional Treatment Centre to further support both Boards. The National Treatment Centres will provide the single biggest increase in planned care capacity ever created in the NHS.

The Scottish Government published the framework for clinical prioritisation, which provides NHS Scotland with clear principles for prioritising planned care while ensuring appropriate COVID-19 safety and priority measures are in place. This guidance provides clear guidance on determining a patient’s clinical urgency and sets out review stages to ensure each individual patient’s case is assessed regularly to ensure the most appropriate care.

An evidence review on international approaches to challenging demand is being carried out by Scottish Government’s Justice Analytical Services (JAS), and will be published later this year as an official social research report.

As is the case with all Analytical Services Divisions within the Scottish Government, JAS provide impartial evidence-based advice to support policy development - with all social research needing to comply with the Scottish Government’s ethical principles. These principles specifically require researchers to consider and address ethical risks to protect against distortion and bias in the interpretation of findings.

This analysis will support the development of a model for Scotland which effectively tackles and challenges men’s demand for prostitution, whilst taking into account Scotland’s unique legal and societal landscape.

Schools are best placed to support learners and give them the best chance to demonstrate their potential. Guidance makes clear that schools should ensure remote learning materials are in place in circumstances where they are required. We continue to make resources available to support that contingency.

£4 million of funding is being made available to schools and colleges to increase Easter study support where appropriate, particularly for those from the most deprived backgrounds. Schools and colleges have the flexibility to deliver that support as they see fit, including online.

This support is complemented by an enhanced range of options for online learning through the National e-Learning Offer (NeLO). In the event of school staff absences and learners revising at home, even at short notice, NeLO is available. Educators can refer their learners to collections of resources - recorded, supported and often live interactive webinars - and schools can make parents and learners aware that these resources are available whenever remote learning is required.

It remains our firm intention that exams take place this year. They would only be cancelled if public health guidance prevented gatherings during the exam timetable. The safety of children, young people, and all education staff remains the overriding priority.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling all forms of racism, including antisemitism. We adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism in June 2017. This is the Scottish Government position and it applies to all Ministers. We encourage all bodies to sign up to the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

We are actively engaged in consultation with Jewish students, Jewish community organisations, and stakeholders in higher education as part of our wider approach to tackling antisemitism.

On 23 February 2022, I held a round table discussion on antisemitism in higher education with Jewish students, representatives from the Jewish community, and stakeholders from the higher education sector. The event was organised in response to a letter from the Union of Jewish Students regarding universities and the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

It was an opportunity for students to share their experiences of antisemitism and also to hear from stakeholders about the work they are doing to confront this issue in practice. The discussion was very productive, with all parties agreeing to undertake positive actions to address antisemitism on campus going forward.

The routine vaccinations for pregnant women have continued in Scotland throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We encourage all those who are eligible to take up the offer of vaccination.

The flu vaccine has been available to pregnant women, (via their midwife) from the start of the current programme, which launched on 6 September 2021, and continued to be offered until the end of the flu season, 31 March 2022.

An exam exceptional circumstances service will be available for learners who miss their exam due to, for example, illness which would include being ill with Covid-19.

This service is based on SQA’s established annual process. If a candidate is eligible for exceptional circumstances, their centre will provide appropriate assessment evidence gathered during the course of the year. The SQA will review this, along with any exam script and coursework, against the national standard to award appropriate grades.

The routine immunisation programmes have continued in Scotland throughout the COVID-19 pandemic despite code black status being declared in some NHS Boards.

Uptake rates for routine programmes have remained consistently high across Scotland. Maintaining the best possible uptake of immunisations is a priority for the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland, and this reflects the hard work and commitment of our colleagues within the NHS.

The latest statistical releases from Public Health Scotland can be found here: Publications - Public Health Scotland

Recruitment of invigilators is an operational matter for the SQA. SQA is working with centres to ensure sufficient numbers of invigilators are available, with contingencies in place to mitigate any unexpected absences due to Covid-19 during the exams.

Currently the best source of estimated long COVID prevalence data for Scotland is the monthly Office for National Statistics (ONS) reporting on ‘Estimates of the prevalence of self-reported long COVID and associated activity limitation, using UK Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey data’. ( Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) ) The latest publication in this series was published on 7 April 2022 (referring to the four-week period ending 5 March 2022). It showed that:

• An estimated 132,000 people in the private residential population in Scotland (2.51%) reported experiencing long COVID of any duration (see accompanying uncertainty estimates in the following table).
• An estimated 92,000 people in the private residential population in Scotland (1.75%) first had (or suspected they had) COVID-19 at least 12 weeks previously .
• An estimated 59,000 people in the private residential population in Scotland (1.12%) first had (or suspected they had) COVID-19 at least 12 months previously .