Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government follows the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Guidance in the planning of vaccine delivery. This evidence based guidance advises that the single greatest risk of mortality from COVID-19 is increasing age, and that the risk increases exponentially with age. Additionally the committee considers frontline health and social care workers who provide direct care to vulnerable people a high priority for vaccination.

The JCVI priority lists represents 99% of the preventable mortality from COVID-19 in Scotland and throughout the delivery of the vaccination programme we will be guided by the clinical expertise of the JCVI, the MHRA, and our own senior clinical advisers.

Partners of people who are shielding will not be offered a vaccine as one of the phase 1 priority groups unless the partner is identified or identifies themselves as an unpaid carer, or is aged 50 or over.

The Scottish Government has been clear that it is right that responsible developers continue to take action to support owners affected by this issue through no fault of their own. I will consider all options available, including those allowed in legislation to resolve the situation for building owners and tenants.

I have contacted several developers and commend Taylor Wimpey for their commitment in Glasgow. The public commitment of remediation funds by Persimmon Homes last month is welcomed. I am determined that the steps we take will support, not discourage, such responsible action and I will set out a sustainable path forward on this issue later this month.

Recent consultations on guidance produced by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Scottish Government have shown that agreement is now developing on both the nature and extent of buildings affected most at risk. This clarity will allow us to cost and take action to target support accordingly, focusing on the greatest need and securing best value for the taxpayer within the plan I set out later this month.

Enforcement of the Coronavirus Regulations, including the travel restrictions, is an operational matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland.

Police Scotland fully recognise the impact the restrictions have on people’s lives. Their approach throughout the pandemic has not changed. Officers will continue to support people to follow the Regulations and encourage them to take personal responsibility for their actions using a 4Es approach of Engage, Explain, Encourage and Enforce.

Police Scotland have advised that they have increased patrols in Scotland’s communities and on our roads network to provide greater potential for officers to explain the regulations and to encourage people to do the right thing. Where officers encounter wilful breaches, they will act decisively to enforce the law.

Police Scotland have also advised that they will continue to deal with clear breaches in international travel regulations in line with the 4Es approach and appropriate operating procedures have been put in place to ensure any such breaches can be effectively enforced.

It is important that people can access COVID-19 data by equality characteristics, and the Scottish Government aims to make data open and accessible wherever possible.

The Scottish Government receives daily figures for all deaths within 28 days of a first positive COVID-19 test from Health Protection Scotland (HPS) and weekly figures for deaths registered where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate from National Records of Scotland (NRS). NRS also publish a more comprehensive report on deaths from COVID-19 every month with additional analysis including breakdowns by age, sex, deprivation, and pre-existing medical conditions. While this does not include analysis on how many of the people who died from COVID-19 were disabled, the Scottish Government has been advised by NRS that this is currently being undertaken and is planned to be published in the next few weeks.

The figures and analysis presented by the Scottish Government and partner organisations continue to evolve over time to ensure the most relevant information is included and the needs of stakeholders are met.

We will be issuing a communication to people who do not attend their appointment, in the hope that they will take up a new vaccination appointment. We have also made it clear on NHS Inform and within the follow-up invite, that should people wish to receive a vaccination this can be done by contacting the helpline on 0800 030 8013, where an appointment can be made on their behalf.

We do not hold this information and I would encourage the Member to engage with the local Health Boards for it.

To date, our latest management information indicates a wastage rate of around only 1.8% - well below our planning assumption of 5%, which is a precautionary approach for worst case scenarios and in line with global best practice.

Some wastage is unavoidable for a variety of reasons based on the characteristics of the vaccine, logistical issues with cold chain supply, storage failure and/or specific clinical situations such as a breakout of COVID-19 in a care home.

Nonetheless, any wastage is reviewed to ensure any preventable loss is avoided in the future and guidance on avoiding wastage has been issued to health boards across the country.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommendation continues to be that an age-based approach is the best way to address the risk of severe illness and mortality. This simple approach helps us to do that as quickly as possible. Calling people forward in age cohorts is operationally very simple and this process has already worked well during the earlier stages of the programme. This approach will be taken by the 4 Nations across the UK and we will continue to vaccinate as quickly as supplies allow.

The JCVI has published its recommendations for vaccination of the remainder of the adult population, beyond cohorts 1 to 9. In light of these recommendations, and once we have offered vaccination to the main priority groups, we will continue to follow their advice by inviting adults under 50 who have not received the vaccine in age cohort. These are as follows:

• All those aged 40-49 years
• All those aged 30-39 years
• All those aged 18-29 years

This advice by the JCVI is supported by the evidence that the risk of hospitalisation and critical care admission with COVID-19 increases with age. Those at highest risk of hospitalisation outside of cohorts 1-9 are those aged 40-49 years.

Vaccine doses are being allocated to local health boards on an equitable basis, recognising the different population share and geography. The list of vaccination centres within SIMD quintile is as follows:

SIMD 2020 Quintile Vaccination Centres

The Chief Medical Officer has issued a letter to all the Health Boards on 5 February, which sets out the guidance on how Health Boards should seek to vaccinate those within eligible JCVI priority cohorts who are in hospital prior to discharge, where that cohort is currently receiving vaccination in the community. We expect the guidance to be operationalised and implemented by all hospitals including Ayr Hospital and University Hospital Crosshouse.

Care should be taken to check records for previous history of COVID-19 vaccination, confirmation of vaccine and steps should be taken to enable a second dose as appropriate. These decisions will be made by clinicians, taking into account a range of factors as set out above.

Vaccinating people as soon as they enter hospital will not immediately prevent COVID-19 infection or disease, as it takes 2-3 weeks for an immune response to develop from vaccination.

The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) letter can be viewed here: CMO(2021)03 - COVID-19 vaccination programme: bringing forward priority cohorts (scot.nhs.uk) .

In management information collated on 3 March 2021, a total of 3066 staff capable of undertaking contact tracing activity, were available for deployment across NHS Scotland territorial boards and the National Contact Tracing Centre run by National Services Scotland (NSS). A summary of this information, broken down by health board, is set out in the following table. The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally on the proportion of these staff who are newly recruited or redeployed; the recruitment and deployment of staff is a matter for the board.

Scottish Government keep contact tracing capacity under active review, in line with modelling undertaken by Public Health Scotland, with all boards required to maintain a total national capacity commensurate with demand. Test and Protect has successfully operated throughout Autumn and Winter despite the increased volume of cases, including during and after the Festive Period. We continue to meet demand within the system, deploying around 1000 staff per day as required.

The National Contact Tracing Centre contracted with the private sector to provide staff to temporarily augment existing NHS capacity. NSS oversee training and performance of staff to ensure quality is maintained. External partners currently account for less than 30% of the trained contact tracing workforce and are deployed as required. The significant majority of contact tracing staff on any given day are NHS employees. All contact tracing in Scotland is, and will remain NHS led.

The current contracts will end this month and there will be a significant reduction in the use of the private sector from April now the NHS workforce is established with over 2000 NHS staff trained and available for deployment. A Framework Agreement has been established from April to provide resource on a flexible basis to build resilience during peaks in demand for Contact Tracing services.