Seòmar agus comataidhean

The focus of the Scottish City Region and Growth Deals carbon management guidance is the minimisation of greenhouse gas emissions, in support of Scotland’s national target to reach net zero by 2045. The guidance is already fully aligned with the Environmental Impact Assessment process, which also addresses adaptation and ensures resilience to the locked in impacts of climate change. This enables the guidance to be used in conjunction with other sources of information (e.g. projections of future changes in climate) to undertake climate change impact assessments in accordance with relevant planning requirements and building standards.

To date, Scottish Ministers have had no formal discussions with the survivors or stakeholders involved in the allegations of abuse at Fornethy House Residential School. The abuse of children in all circumstances and settings is wrong, and the Scottish Government takes this abuse very seriously.

Scottish Government officials have exchanged correspondence with a number of members of the Fornethy House Residential School Survivors Group in relation to the eligibility criteria of Scotland’s Redress Scheme. As the circumstances in which individuals came to be at Fornethy may vary, it is not possible to determine eligibility for the group as a whole.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting all survivors of childhood abuse. Through the Scottish Government’s Survivors of Childhood Abuse Support (SOCAS) Fund, 29 organisations across Scotland are funded to provide support to adult survivors of childhood abuse including (but not exclusive to) those who have been abused in care.

Including self-referrals, a total of 1157 referrals were made to the Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland long COVID Support Service from April to December 2021. The Scottish Government does not hold this information broken down by month.

The purpose of setting a six week period is to balance the need to ensure that decisions can be dealt with as quickly as possible, with providing applicant’s sufficient time to seek supporting information, or to request help from Social Security Scotland to obtain this information. It also means that there is an up-to-date record of the individual’s care and mobility needs, which Social Security Scotland might not otherwise have if the application is not completed until a much later date.

It is clear on the application form, in our communications and guidance that if an applicant has any difficulty completing the application within the six week period, they should tell Social Security Scotland. If the applicant has good reason for not meeting the deadline, Social Security Scotland can extend this time period for up to 52 weeks. If Social Security Scotland does not accept the reasons for the late completion, the individual has the right to request a re-determination in relation to the start date of assistance.

The safety of all vaccines and medicines is monitored by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on a UK-wide basis. This includes reports from the Yellow Card Scheme which allows health professionals and patients across the UK to flag up suspected adverse reactions to any vaccine or medicine, as well as reports from worldwide use and on-going scientific evidence.

The MHRA has a range of resources and technology to support the safety monitoring of the COVID-19 vaccination programme. The use of artificial intelligence is one element of that and helps to reduce the amount of manual coding for each report to the Yellow Card Scheme on COVID-19 vaccines, thereby saving resource in processing cases and ensuring they are more rapidly available for scientific analysis. The tool is not used for assessment of data, but to help ensure that all information from reports is well structured to support analysis and is subject to robust quality assessment.

Concerns over the safety of vaccines are not taken lightly. Please be assured that the MHRA keep the safety of all vaccines under close and continual review, and would take appropriate regulatory action if new evidence emerged which called into question the safety of any vaccines currently in use in Scotland.

Expert advice from bodies including SAGE and the Health and Safety Executive indicates that air cleaning/filtration devices, such as HEPA filters, are not a substitute for efforts to improve ventilation in order to mitigate against the risks of COVID. Our guidance for schools reflects this advice, and makes clear that air cleaning/filtration devices should not be used as a substitute for natural or mechanical ventilation (including the opening of windows and doors).

Our updated guidance for schools does, however, make clear that air cleaning/filtration devices may be used as a temporary mitigation in exceptional circumstances when no other mitigations are achievable, while working to achieve a more sustainable solution.

The Scottish Government keeps its guidance under regular review in light of the latest expert advice, and will consider any necessary updates as research and evidence evolve.

The Scottish Government believes that listening to as broad a range as possible of people affected by these practices will help us to understand what support and action may be needed.

That is why we published a dedicated webpage and questionnaire on 26 January, to invite views from women and families affected by historical adoption practices, who may also wish to take the opportunity to shape next steps. The information we receive will help us to continue to explore how those affected can best be supported with a view to continuing a collaborative approach as we progress with this matter.

We have also introduced a dedicated helpline in collaboration with Health in Mind for individuals who would like to be supported to make their contribution.

A short life working group, comprising of key public bodies and third sector representatives, has been established to consider the fundamental principles which will underpin a model for Scotland to effectively tackle and challenge men’s demand for prostitution. These principles will embed equality, human rights and support our efforts to tackle men’s violence against women. Draft principles will be consulted upon later this year.

As part of this work, the group are considering a range of issues which includes support services and how this will be reflected within the model’s principles.

A key aim of this work is to reduce stigma and criminalisation experienced by women involved in prostitution and improve access to services at local and national levels.

We know this is a difficult time for the independent travel agents and we have had to make tough decisions to target funding to sectors immediately impacted by the updated public health guidance.

Since the start of the pandemic, businesses have benefitted from more than £4.4bn in support from the Scottish Government. This includes support for travel agents who benefited from sectoral grants of up to £25,000 per premises this year in addition to other support including the Strategic Framework Business Fund grants, Restart Grants, Contingency Fund, Non-Domestic Rates relief and furlough payments for staff.

We recently announced £375m of support for businesses impacted by the necessary public health measures introduced to control the spread of Omicron and have provided details on how £266 million 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.

Information on the number of full-time equivalent stoma care clinical specialist nurses currently employed by NHS Scotland is not centrally held.

Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) data by NHS Board from 2009 to the most recent data published in September 2018, can be found at:

https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/media/4ndpx4za/clinical_nurse_specialists_s2018.xlsx

Given data quality concerns all historical data, whilst published, should be treated with caution. NES will continue to work with the Scottish Government and NHS Boards to ensure improved recording going forward.

A national review into the Clinical Nurse Specialist role and its definition is currently under way. NHS Education for Scotland (NES) will work with NHS Boards to improve the quality of CNS data once this is complete.