Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05521 on 24 January 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

Information on hospital admissions for all causes for this date range is not held by the Scottish Government. Information on hospital admissions is published daily by Public Health Scotland (PHS), however, this is only available on a quarterly basis.

Between 23 December 2021 and 16 January 2022 there were 3,360 COVID-19 related hospital admissions.

A breakdown of this figure by primary condition is not available.

However, a recent clinical audit performed by Public Health Scotland has shown that as of 4 January 2022 in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 9 January 2022 in NHS Dumfries and Galloway and 11 January 2022 in NHS Grampian, 63% of acute hospital admissions were determined to be ‘because of’ COVID-19 (assuming either a definite or probable attribution) as opposed to coincidental ‘with’ COVID-19. These findings relate to analyses by PHS in their COVID-19 and Winter Statistical Report published on 19 January 2022.

There are 25 HSTs in the Abellio ScotRail fleet which are formed from 52 locos (power cars) and 117 coaches into 4 and 5 car formations but not all of these are planned to run in daily service.

Abellio ScotRail has been providing appropriate capacity on these routes that is better matched to the period of reduced demand, down around 50% compared with early 2019.

Further to the answer given to question S6W-04701 on 23 December 2021, I can confirm that the case note review for Mr Slorance, undertaken by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, was completed in November 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

Information on TAVI procedures in Scotland for 2018-19 and 2019-20 was submitted by sites to the UK National Cardiac Audit Programme. Published data is available from the British Cardiovascular Interventional Society (BCIS) - Audit Results - British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (bcis.org.uk) .

The published reports indicate that in 2018-19 there were 310 TAVI procedures, and in 2019-20 there were 400 TAVI procedures carried out in Scotland. The reports do not break down the number of cases per Scottish site.

The Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme is currently working with TAVI sites across Scotland to collate data for 2020-21 onwards.

The Scottish Government is committed to using public procurement to address the Climate Emergency. This work is framed in terms of the Sustainable Procurement Duty of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, which requires public bodies to consider how they can improve the environmental, as well as social and economic, wellbeing of the authority’s area, and act in a way to secure improvements identified. Public bodies routinely report on the environmental benefits generated through their procurement activity in their Annual Procurement Reports.

In response to the Climate Emergency the Scottish Government established the Climate and Procurement Forum with representative bodies of key sectors, to provide leadership and direction to enable traction on climate change.

Examples of actions leading from the Forum include publishing a procurement policy note to clarify expectations with respect to climate and circular economy considerations; Ministers writing to local leaders stressing their role in enabling sustainable outcomes through procurement, and producing Climate Literacy eLearning to assist public bodies to take account of climate and circular economy through procurement. To support environmentally-friendly buying options, our national frameworks are available to the wider public sector and charities, for example our Non Domestic Energy Efficiency Frameworks supports the transition to a low carbon economy across sectors. Additionally, we host the latest current guidance on training on the Sustainable Procurement Tools platform.

The Scottish Government has announced £375m of business support to support businesses in the sectors most affected by the restrictions and guidance to control the spread of Omicron. This includes £6m for the most directly affected businesses in the tourism sector including inbound tour operators, day tour operators, coach operators, hostels, visitor attractions and marine/outdoor. Guidance on this funding and other funds is available on Financial support for businesses - News | VisitScotland.org and findbusinesssupport.gov.scot

We have had to make tough decisions to target funding to sectors immediately impacted by the updated public health guidance. Decisions on the allocation of the remaining funds will be confirmed following further consultation with affected sectors on how it can best be targeted.

This was one of the most fiscally challenging Scottish Budgets to date, with efficiencies having to be found across a number of portfolios. The budget allocation to Skills Development Scotland (SDS) should be seen in that context.

The SDS budget allocation includes Grant in-Aid for programme delivery and programme liabilities, which fluctuate depending on the numbers of people in training. The allocation also covers operational and staffing costs.

In 2021-22, the SDS budget allocation included around £8m for the continued delivery of programmes created as a response to COVID-19 which we do not expect will be continuing at the same levels in 2022/23.

We are working with SDS to finalise the details of their budget approach in 2022-23. This will ensure continued provision against Ministerial priorities and prioritise the delivery of training and learning opportunities.

We announced £375m of business support to tackle Omicron and provided details on how £276m of this will be allocated.

Decisions on the allocation of the remaining funds will be confirmed following further consultation with affected sectors on how it can best be targeted.

The Scottish Government used a range of sources of evidence when determining the latest isolation policy changes including data on various key aspects of the pandemic including vaccination rates; clinical advice from senior clinicians including the Chief Medical Officer, PHS public health clinicians, the National Incident Management Team and UKHSA analysis.

In addition, the Scottish Government considered the effects on key workforces and service, including health and social care, of retaining the same isolation policy.