Seòmar agus comataidhean

As the First Minister advised Parliament on 26 May, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party have committed to exploring opportunities for cooperation and joint working for the common good and to change the dynamic of our politics for the better in line with the founding principles of our Parliament.

Since the First Minister’s announcement last month, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens have been engaging in positive discussions about a potential co-operation agreement, and have identified the subjects to be explored as part of this.

Talks are covering the major challenges of this Parliament. This includes Scotland’s recovery from Covid, our response to the Climate Emergency, the constitution, public services, infrastructure, and building a fairer and more equal Scotland.

Talks will continue over the summer and a further report will be provided to Parliament after the recess.

On 25 March 2021 the UK Government committed to ruling out COVID-19 appeals on non-domestic properties in England. It concurrently announced a new Business Rates relief fund of £1.5 billion for businesses affected by COVID-19 outside the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors.

We anticipate that this will result in consequential funding for the Scottish Government, but at this point we are still waiting for confirmation of when this will be received. Once that confirmation is provided, we remain committed to passing on all business support consequentials through a tailored package of measures for Scottish business during the recovery period.

In the interim, we agree in principle with the UK Government that market-wide economic changes to rateable values, such as from COVID-19, should be only considered at revaluation to ensure fairness to all ratepayers; and that it is not appropriate to use the material change of circumstances provisions in the non-domestic rates legislation in relation to COVID-19, or COVID-19 restrictions.

The Scottish Government can therefore confirm its intention to also take measures to rule out COVID-19 appeals, whilst continuing to ensure that we best support the most affected businesses and sectors in the recovery period. We will set out our legislative plans after the summer.

Marine Scotland currently monitors marine plastic pollution in three programmes which have been used to establish baselines for seabed litter, floating microplastics and beach litter. These were published in Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020 and can be found at https://marine.gov.scot/sma/assessment-theme/marine-litter .

The Scottish Government has been ready for some time to press ahead with the process to establish green ports. Despite our commitment to moving forward in partnership, the UK Government has failed to engage with us to publish a joint applicant prospectus. We have also yet to receive formal agreement from the UK Government about designating two green ports in Scotland, and that each will be able to access the same amount of seed capital funding as each freeport in England.

As a result, the Scottish Government is now inviting notes of interest from potential green port bidders in Scotland. This exercise will allow us to gauge interest for the development of green port policy in Scotland and will provide an indication of the geography and sectors likely to benefit. The notes of interest invited will be based on the content of the abridged draft applicant prospectus, published on the Scottish Government website in March, which also signposted the reserved offer available to all freeports in England. Further information on the call for notes of interest is available on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/policies/cities-regions/green-ports/

I have written to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to set out the Scottish Government’s proposed next steps for delivering this policy and intend to hold a stakeholder engagement session on the 30 th of June.

I am pleased to inform Parliament that Scotland’s Climate Assembly has today [23 June] laid its full report and recommendations in parliament.

I am grateful for the commitment shown by Assembly members, and to those that organised and contributed to this Assembly. It has been inspiring to see how the Assembly has come together during the pandemic and delivered its work entirely online.

In this year of COP26, Scotland’s Climate Assembly exemplifies how we are putting people at the heart of policy making, by consulting, engaging and involving citizens in decision-making. The Assembly’s ambitious recommendations provide support for the societal transformation we know will be needed for Scotland to become a net zero nation.

We welcome the recommendations made today by Scotland’s Climate Assembly. It is clear that Assembly members have taken great care to develop ambitious proposals, which are a credit to them and the dedication they have shown. We will take the necessary time to reflect on the recommendations and issue a comprehensive and cross-Government response in line with the requirements of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act.

The Scottish Government is committed to replacing the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion to ensure that future services are of a high quality and sustainable.

NHS Lothian submitted its review to the Scottish Government on 21 May 2021 and we have since accepted the review. The Scottish Government wrote to NHS Lothian on 9 June 2021 to invite it to submit an Outline Business Case (OBC) for the development of eye care services. This will be considered by Scottish Government’s NHS Capital Investment Group who will undertake a detailed review of the evidence provided.

Once an OBC is approved the next stage is submission of the Full Business Case (FBC) and construction normally begins shortly after approval of a FBC.

It is essential that the required due diligence is completed to ensure the best possible future services and facilities; and this will take time. We look forward to continuing to work with NHS Lothian to fully support them during this process.

We are putting in place a temporary arrangement to deal with such a scenario between 26 June and 11 July. In the event of extended play, and limited only to match days and the games where this occurs, closing time for hospitality premises showing the game will be extended up to 23:30 where required. This is not a blanket relaxation of the rules but a specific and pragmatic approach to facilitate safe viewing of full Euros matches. Guidance for the sector will be updated to reflect this temporary change.

The Public Interest Conditions for this specific project are a matter for the UK Government.

Vaccines Taskforce, BEIS have provided the following commentary that the UK Government’s investments to fund Valneva’s early clinical trials and upgrade and expand Valneva’s Livingston manufacturing facility were made in line with HM Treasury’s Green Book.

Vaccines Taskforce and BEIS provided the following commentary that the UK Government has secured early access to 100 million doses of Valneva’s COVID-19 vaccine across 2021 and 2022.

The Prime Minister announced at the G7 on 11 June that the UK will donate 100 million surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses within the next year. The UK will donate 5 million doses by the end of September, beginning in the coming weeks, primarily for use in the world’s poorest countries. The Prime Minister has also committed to donating a further 95 million doses within the next year, including 25 million more by the end of 2021. 80% of the 100m doses will go to COVAX and the remainder will be shared bilaterally with countries in need. The vaccines will be drawn from across the UK’s supply of Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech, Janssen, Moderna and others. Decisions on which vaccines will be shared will be based on the continued reliability of supply chains, regulatory restrictions and advice from the JCVI.

Early medical abortion at home, and the changes adopted in March 2020, has been an important measure to ensure abortion services have continued to be delivered throughout the pandemic, without delays. 

The Scottish Government launched a public consultation on the future arrangements for early medical abortion at home on 30 September 2020, which closed on 5 January 2021. An independent analysis of the consultation responses has been published today and can be found at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781800048560.

The report shows very differing views among respondents, particularly in relation to whether the current approach is sufficiently safe. In order to ensure robust evidence is available, the Scottish Government is taking steps to commission an independent evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the current approach, including in relation to safety. Scottish Ministers will consider future arrangements once this evaluation has been completed.

The current March 2020 approval will remain in place while this evaluation is undertaken. This will continue to allow patients to take both mifepristone and misoprostol at home (following a telephone or video consultation) while coronavirus continues to pose a serious and imminent threat to public health in Scotland and a doctor, or a nurse under the direction of a doctor, considers that it is not advisable or possible for the person to attend a clinic. In line with the Scottish Abortion Care Providers guidelines, both drugs should only be taken at home where it is considered clinically appropriate for the patient, and where the patient wishes to do so.