Seòmar agus comataidhean

The M80 northbound Junction 4a Low Wood off slip spur to Cumbernauld Town Centre has been closed alongside lane restrictions passing over the motorway overbridges on the A8011 to allow structure inspections and investigation works to be carried out. This stage of the works is expected to be completed by the end of November.

We continue to closely monitor all emerging evidence on new treatments related to the long-term effects of COVID-19 (long Covid) and their clinical effectiveness.

The current Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) clinical guideline , developed in collaboration with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), provides evidence based information for clinicians on the identification and management of people affected by long-term effects of COVID-19.

The clinical guideline which is being actively reviewed and updated in line with the evidence base on the treatment of long COVID as it continues to develop.

When making the difficult decision to suspend any non-urgent elective surgery, Health Boards are following local decision making on an daily and weekly basis, dependant on where the most pressures are ensuring urgent elective and Cancer surgery continues.

Where there are any changes being made to a patients treatment plan we expect discussions to take place between patient and clinician. The Clinical Prioritisation Framework is being used by Health Boards to ensure that patients with the greatest clinical need are treated first.

To support elective activity mutual aid is being sought between Health Boards and the NHS Golden Jubilee are supporting various Boards across Scotland undertaking Cancer, Ophthalmology and Cardiology services.

Moving forward we have published our NHS Recovery Plan. Recovery focusses on alternatives pathways of care that allow people to be treated more quickly closer to home and also delivers long term sustainability. The plan is backed by more than £1 billion of investment over the next five years.

The reopening of the Edinburgh South Suburban rail line for passengers is being considered within the second Strategic Transport Projects Review.

Since 2016 the Scottish Government has directly funded or provided the following training specifically aimed at supporting disabled people in using public transport:

• The rail First Time Traveller Programme – supports people with autism in experiencing rail travel for the first time in order to raise awareness of what to expect and to build confidence.
• Railway Awareness Open Days at major stations – ScotRail, working alongside third sector organisations, invite disabled people to come and familiarise themselves with stations and train travel as well as answering any questions they may have.
• Travel training programmes – one in Clackmannanshire and Stirling where trained support workers help young people as well as individuals with dementia and autism access and navigate public transport increasing their confidence to travel independently; and the other in East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and Greater Glasgow which did the same for people with learning difficulties or autism.
• Working with Disability Equality Scotland, Transport Scotland has undertaken a series of webinars and polls with disabled people and disabled people’s organisations exploring a range of issues important to disabled people, including how confidence in returning to public transport post-pandemic could be strengthened

In addition, the Scottish Government has funded or provided training for public transport operators and their staff in order to raise awareness of the needs of disabled passengers. For example, sensory packs and staff awareness training were rolled out across the Calmac ferry fleet on behalf of the National Autistic Society, and training has been funded for staff at Scottish airports on a range of topics from British Sign Language to autism awareness.

Quality Meat Scotland estimate that there are around 15-20 female butchers currently working in Scotland. As part of work that Quality Meat Scotland and other stakeholders are doing on encouraging careers in the butchery sector, they are about to survey all independent butchers in Scotland to try to establish this data, as well as some other employment statistics in the sector.

In accordance with section 121 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, local authorities report annually on provisions on allotments in their areas. Reports are available from each local authority online. The Scottish Government does not hold historic data on allotment provision.

Up-until 2020 100% of sheep flocks selected for inspection had to have a full head count.

For 2020 in order to minimise Covid-19 related risks for farmers/crofters and Scottish Government inspectors the requirement to undertake a full head count at every inspection was removed.

For 2021 a partial head count was reinstated but only for sheep maintained on a farmer/crofter's main holding and sheep maintained on other land within a 5 mile radius of the main holding.

For 2020 and 2021, for farmer/crofters primarily with small flocks or where significant errors are found, some of the inspection controls have the same effect as undertaking a full head count.

The percentage of full flock head counts undertaken in each of the last five years which relate to inspections carried out in Shetland are set out in the following table. Figures for the current year aren't available as inspections are ongoing.

There is no specific offence for 'drink spiking' however the Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database shows there were no people convicted for offences under section 11 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 (administering a substance for sexual purposes) or for drugging from 2015-16 to 2019-20.

We have strengthened smart ticketing measures for local transport authorities in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 to further enable growth in adopting multi-modal smart and integrated ticketing schemes. We continue to work with regional bodies like Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT Zonecard) to support existing schemes move onto smart platforms.

Our vision is that all journeys on Scotland’s public transport networks can be made using some form of smart ticketing or payment and progress has already been made towards achieving this ambition. Scotland is the first in the UK to offer smartcard compatibility across modes – where multiple tickets for different modes can be loaded onto one smartcard - and contactless payment is also now being accepted on over 95% of buses in Scotland.

We are also taking forward our Fair Fares Review to ensure a sustainable and integrated approach to public transport fares, this will look at the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry, and will look at both cost and availability of services.