Chamber and committees

Tried and tested person to person contact tracing is already in place and will always be the core part the Test and Protect service. The Protect Scotland app should only ever be seen as an enhancement to Test and Protect but the more people that download it the more effective it will be and those who do not use the app will still benefit from the collective protection it offers.

An interim Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) has been published on protect.scot It is recognised that not everyone would be able to or want to download the Protect Scotland app.

Although digital exclusion is not a protected characteristic, nevertheless the EQIA considered the impact of not having a compatible phone. This explains that Protect Scotland requires the Exposure Notification System which Google and Apple have created. Protect Scotland works on all phones which Google and Apple have made the Exposure Notification System available on. For Apple users, this is all iPhones since the 6S, and for Google it’s all Android phones that run Android 6.0 or higher. This applies to almost all smartphones released since 2015, and accounts for the majority of smartphones in use today.

Like all other privacy-focused ‘decentralised’ apps worldwide, Protect Scotland cannot function without the Google/Apple Exposure Notification System.

The interim EQIA will be further developed and consider feedback following the launch of the app. A final version will be published by the end of 2020, with a new Digital Health Equalities & Inclusion group established to support its ongoing development. A copy of the interim EQIA is available at www.protect.scot .

The Scottish Government takes the containment of farmed fish very seriously. Breaches are investigated by the Fish Health Inspectorate using powers under the Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2007 (AFSA).

In the last five years, eight companies have received guidance on compliance with AFSA, following the completion of containment enhanced inspection.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-31461 on 10 September 2020. All answers to Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Ministers did not have information on the results of Covid-19 tests for patients who were discharged from hospital prior to the release of the Sunday Post FOI. However, following Parliamentary Questions in May officials discussed with Public Health Scotland (PHS) the potential of linking the discharge and test result datasets.

Following discussions it was agreed to initially focus on the cohort of patients who experience a delay, and work on combining the delayed discharge and testing data commenced in July with initial data expected to be available in October 2020.

Funding of £1.3 million (2020-21), and £1.9 million in each of the following two years will be made available for the new specialist service.

The new service expects 35 surgical cases this year and, in the following two years, it expects in the region of 130 multi-disciplinary team referrals and around 100 surgical cases per year. The projected cost per patient in years two and three is therefore around £19,000. Cost per patient in the first year is higher due to initial start-up costs and phased recruitment.

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and continuing to support the country through the crisis is our priority. However, we now have an opportunity to deliver a sustainable and green recovery from the pandemic. This means ensuring economic, social and environmental wellbeing, while responding to the twin challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.

This year’s Programme for Government sets out the key elements of a green recovery as part of Scotland’s Green New Deal including: investing in a green recovery and mobilising private finance; skills and training for green jobs; supporting local economies and community wealth building; investing in our future resilience; transitioning industry and energy towards net-zero; protecting and restoring Scotland’s land and natural economy and transforming how we heat our homes and buildings.

Some of the commitments we have made in our Programme for Government include:

• £1.6 billion invested over the next Parliament in heat and energy efficiency in our homes and buildings
• £500 million over 5 years for large scale, transformational active travel infrastructure projects
• £100 million to a new Green Jobs Fund over the next five years to support businesses which provide sustainable and/or low carbon products and services to develop, grow and create jobs.
• £60 million to support the industrial manufacturing sector including the £34 million Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund and a £26 million Manufacturing Low Carbon Infrastructure Challenge Fund

Central to our green recovery will be heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency. That is why our Programme for Government includes transformational investment in decarbonising our homes and buildings and why we have reprioritised the Heat Transition Deal, including; £50 million Green Recovery Fund through our Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP), with a focus on heat decarbonisation, local energy systems and demonstrator projects; £20 million to decarbonise heating in social housing; £2 million capital investment for remote and off grid communities through our flagship Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) programmes; and targeted support to enable affordable housing to meet zero carbon housing standards.

Our Programme for Government also includes additional funding for domestic energy efficiency, bringing total spending in 2020-21 to £162 million. In total, by the end of 2021, we will have allocated over £1 billion since 2009 to tackling fuel poverty and improving energy efficiency.

A combined Heat Decarbonisation Policy Statement and updated Energy Efficient Scotland Routemap will be published in December alongside the updated Climate Change Plan. These documents will further detail our increased ambition to meet our net zero targets and remove poor energy efficiency as a driver of fuel poverty. In addition our Fuel Poverty Strategy based on the new ambitious statutory targets set in the Fuel Poverty (Scotland) Act will be published early next year.

There are a range of policies across Scottish Government that will impact on the way in which infrastructure projects are undertaken to minimise waste and seek to reduce Scotland’s carbon footprint.

Our next Infrastructure Investment Plan – details of which will be announced later this month – will highlight the critical role investment in publicly-funded infrastructure has in supporting a circular economy and our emissions reduction targets. National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), currently in preparation, will align with this Plan and set out a long term planning framework for the planning and delivery of development infrastructure projects. As part of this, policies on zero waste will be reviewed to ensure they reflect up to date priorities for the circular economy.

The Sustainable Procurement Duty in the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 also requires public bodies to consider and act on opportunities to improve economic, social and environmental wellbeing in the course of their procurement activity. Practical support is also provided through Zero Waste Scotland which has a range of guides, tools and resources on their website and offer expert support for construction projects to help them move towards a more circular model.

Individual risk assessments are a matter for the multi-disciplinary teams in hospitals to carry out.

Our guidance has always been clear. At all times a thorough risk assessment should be undertaken prior to discharge to ensure that the care home is able to provide the care required e.g. if the individual requires to be isolated, that there is a suitable physical space and staff available for the delivery of care and support to an isolated resident.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29511 on 10 July 2020. All answers to Parliamentary Questions can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .