Chamber and committees

I call John Mason.

There is an important point that has not been raised today. As the only woman on the committee, and having had three children and gone through three pregnancies, I know that every woman tries to look after herself and the baby through the nine months of pregnancy. We know that some pregnant women are hesitant about getting vaccinated. I will ask Dr Lunan and Dr Williamson a brief question, because we are short of time. What can we do to encourage pregnant women to take up the vaccine, especially as we go through winter, to protect themselves and their babies?

Great.

That brings us to the end of our evidence session. I thank all the witnesses for their evidence and for giving us their time. If they would like to give any further evidence to the committee, they can do so in writing. The clerks will be happy to liaise with them on how to do that.

The committee’s next meeting will be on 16 December, when we will take evidence from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery on the Coronavirus (Discretionary Compensation for Self-Isolation) (Scotland) Bill, ministerial statements on Covid-19, and subordinate legislation.

We will now continue to take evidence on the vaccination programme. I welcome our second panel to the meeting: Hilda Campbell, the chief executive of Cope Scotland; Dr Carey Lunan, a general practitioner at the Craigmillar Medical Group and chair of the Scottish deep end project; Derek Holliday, the peer development lead at Homeless Network Scotland; Dr Andrea Williamson of the Scottish deep end project; and Professor Neil Quinn, professor of social work and public health and co-director of the centre for health policy at the University of Strathclyde. Thank you for giving us your time this morning.

As I explained to our earlier panel, we are the lead committee responsible for scrutinising the roll-out of the vaccination programme. Today’s session is an opportunity to consider why uptake of the available vaccines has been below average in some communities in Scotland. We will discuss the vaccine uptake in communities that are experiencing higher levels of deprivation, as defined by the Scottish index of multiple deprivation.

Each member will have about eight minutes to speak to and ask questions of our panel. If any of the witnesses would like to respond to any issue that is being discussed, please type R in the chat box and we will bring you in. We have a large panel, and I am keen to ensure that everyone gets an opportunity to speak, so I apologise in advance if, because things have run on too long, I have to interrupt members or witnesses in the interests of brevity.

My first question is for Hilda Campbell. Thank you for the extensive briefing that you provided to members, in which you highlight many reasons why vaccines might not be taken up. I note an issue that I thought was interesting. We are all aware about misinformation and scaremongering about vaccinations, but you highlight a BBC broadcast about recent queues for vaccination in which one person, who had waited for 45 minutes, said that it was worth it because vaccination was saving lives. I could not agree more with that comment. In your submission, you suggest that

“perhaps more work needing done, to praise those who are taking the vaccine and recognise their contribution to helping us all move out of this pandemic.”

What else should the Scottish Government do to increase vaccine uptake in minority groups from more deprived areas, where living day to day is perhaps more important than getting vaccinated?

Dr Lunan is back and she has a new headset, so her sound should be all right.

No, we are still having problems with her sound.

Good morning, and welcome to the 14th meeting in 2021 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee. Our first agenda item is consideration of the motion on the made affirmative instrument that was considered at last week’s meeting. I welcome Graeme Dey, the Minister for Transport, to the meeting.

Minister, would you like to make any further remarks on the made affirmative instrument?

The committee will publish a report to the Parliament setting out our decision on the statutory instrument that we have considered. I thank the minister for his attendance.

I suspend the meeting to allow a changeover of witnesses.

I am sorry. I think that we temporarily lost the connection with the panel members, but everyone can hear us now. Could Jim Fairlie repeat his question, please?

Do you want to direct that question to anyone in particular, Alex?