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Whilst the UK Government (UKG) are the principle contract owners and managers of the Managed Quarantine Service (MQS) and its suppliers; the Scottish Government acts as officiate of these contracts with the service providers.

The Scottish Government has close working relationships with the services providers, including the hotel teams directly in Scotland. This enables issues to be raised locally, solutions agreed quickly and, where practical, special measures for guests being put in place at short notice.

Travellers who feel their needs are not being adequately met by the hotel; or where they wish to offer feedback on their experience; such as the things mentioned, food quality and noise disturbance; are encouraged to get in touch with the Scottish Government. We do all that we can in liaising with the hotel to ensure that the traveller’s needs are met and that their stay is as comfortable as possible. This can include liaising with Corporate Travel Management directly on behalf of the traveller and signposting the traveller to the range of health care support resources and services that are available through NHS Scotland, including out of hours services.

The UK Government (UKG) are the principle contract owners and managers of the Managed Quarantine Service (MQS) and its suppliers. The UKG are therefore best placed to provide information in relation to the costing model of allocation of managed isolation facilities to travellers.

The UK government`s Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is responsible for the delivery of driving tests in Scotland. However, Transport Scotland meets regularly with the DVSA to explore ways in the delivery of driving tests could be expedited to ensure that waiting times to access a driving test are minimised as much as possible across Scotland. During our recent engagement, the DVSA confirmed that they have increased the number of practical tests being delivered each day and are also recruiting additional driving test examiners to further increase the number of tests that they can deliver including at weekends. Following the recent changes to indoor physical distancing rules in Scotland, announced by the First Minister on 13 July, Transport Scotland has worked with the DVSA to ensure that the number of driving theory tests being delivered in Scotland will be increased in line with the revised rules. As a result, an additional 4,500 driving theory tests will be available to book in Scotland between 19 July to 3 September.

Professional dog walkers, like dog owners, are subject to a number of laws relating to dog welfare and control. The majority of dog walkers are likely to operate sensibly and responsibly; however, the profession itself is currently unregulated and the Scottish Government recognises that issues may arise. We will consider whether there may be a need to bring dog walkers under tighter regulation in any future plans for companion welfare legislation.

Further to the answer provided to S5W-35358, the Scottish Government notes the significant investment CalMac makes in vessel maintenance. CalMac have contracts in place with a number of shipyards to undertake the annual dry-docking of vessels in the fleet. These contracts allow improved planning of the overhaul work as well as undertaking preventative works

The Scottish Government established a Resilience Fund in 2018/19, which is in addition to the annual expenditure for maintenance.

Since 2019-20, the Scottish Government has invested over £3 million in the Bikeability Scotland programme run by Cycling Scotland. Bikeability has three levels of competency which teaches children to ride and control a bike, learn to cycle on quiet streets and cycle independently on busier roads. All schools have the opportunity to participate in all levels of Bikeability, with access to free training resources and instructor training.

The most recent full academic year of delivery, pre-pandemic, was 2018-19. 47% of primary schools in 29 participating local authorities delivered Level 2 on-road training, with over 43,000 pupils receiving cycle training, an increase from 37% in 2015-16. This year, 31 local authorities are taking part in delivering Level 2 training.

17 secondary schools currently deliver Bikeability Level 3 training – to cycle independently on busier roads. In 2021-22, an additional 16 secondary schools will introduce this programme.

The Scottish Government regularly engages with the business community. The main six business organisations – Scottish Chambers, Scottish Council for Development and Industry, CBI Scotland, Federation of Small Business, Institute of Directors and Scottish Financial Enterprise, and others have been meeting with Ministers and with the Director General Economy and other senior officials regularly around business issues arising from the development and implementation of the COVID-19 Strategic Framework. For example, we have committed to engaging with businesses on how we work together to determine the appropriate baseline measures as we move beyond level 0. We are currently undertaking a series of meetings with key stakeholders to ensure their views are considered.

In addition to the regular Ministerial and policy official dialogue with business, a roundtable meeting bringing together Chairs of each Industry Leadership Group in Scotland to explore cross-sectoral and public sector private sector opportunities has been established. Co-Chaired by the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism & Enterprise and Nora Senior (Chair of the Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board) the group is focused on identifying the key areas where industry and public sector collaboration can best drive action to address common strategic economic challenges and opportunities. It last met in March and the next meeting is being arranged.

A meeting of the National Economic Forum (NEF) on 16 June also provided an opportunity for a broad range of ministers to engaged directly with and hear from businesses. Around 165 delegates, mainly from business, attended with over 100 being first or second time attendees while 11 ministers participated (including the FM and DFM). The forum generated a range of fresh ideas and potential opportunities which will now be reviewed to identify which suggestions to progress and how best to do so in a collaborative way with business.

On 30 June 2021, I wrote to Jonathon McCreadie, Manager, Public Policy UK & Ireland at Amazon agreeing to meet him to discuss Amazon’s work in Scotland – the timing for which has still to be agreed. More recently, on‎ 20 July, the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture visited the set for one of Amazon’s Originals, which is being produced in Leith. This was an opportunity to visit the set and to discuss how Amazon might further support apprenticeships in Scotland.

While the Scottish Government has access to management information (MI) on the number of independent contractors participating in the Covid-19 vaccination programme. This MI has not been subject to the same level of validation and checking as National Statistics or Official Statistics. Therefore, the data are not publicly available; however, as individual Health Boards have responsibility for local deployment decisions, they are best placed to advise on the composition of their respective workforces.

The Scottish Government’s office of the Chief Medical Officer is working closely with the UK Department of Health and Social Care and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to prioritise potential treatments for COVID-19. Further results of well-designed randomised controlled clinical trials exploring treatment efficacy of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 are awaited.

The MHRA, together with an independent advisory group, continues to review the emerging body of evidence regarding potential medicines for treatment or prevention of COVID-19, including Ivermectin.

The MHRA advises that, at this time, no application has been received for a licence for ivermectin in the treatment of COVID-19, in the UK. However, should an application for a licence be made, then the MHRA has processes in place to expedite such an application, as required.