Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the lives of trans and non-binary people in Scotland. Trans people continue to suffer poorer outcomes relative to the wider population, and this needs to change.

We are committed to ensuring that all children and young people are supported in school and are able to reach their full potential, including transgender young people. We committed to develop guidance to support schools to do this.

Due to the significant impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, schools are very focused on supporting pupils and are working hard on the phased return of schools. Consequently, we feel it would not be the best time to provide this guidance when attention is on ensuring the continued safety and wellbeing of pupils and staff during the pandemic. Therefore guidance will be published when all pupils have returned to school, or at the earliest opportunity in the new Parliamentary term. Education Authorities and schools should continue to use resources and guidance that they have determined responds positively to the needs of all pupils.

The International Travel Regulations require to be reviewed at least every 28 days. In the time since the last review on 8 February, the Scottish Government has amended regulations to introduce managed quarantine. I have concluded that the requirements imposed by the regulations, as amended, remain proportionate and necessary and should be retained.

The regulations are due to expire 12 months after they were first introduced, which is 8 June 2021. Considering the pre-election period and that parliamentary procedure following the election may continue later into May, I will provide for a short extension to the expiry of the regulations. This will now fall due on 20 September 2021.

This does not change the requirement to review the regulations at least every 28 days. The next review must be completed no later than 5 April, which is during the pre-election period, and I will inform Parliament of the outcome of that review by writing to Committee Conveners and the Presiding Officer.

The Scottish Government is committed to ethical recruitment and protecting the healthcare systems of developing countries. That is why we have published a Scottish Code of Practice on 26 February 2021, in response to the review by the World Health Organisation. It will set out updated principles and practices for the ethical recruitment of health and social care personnel. The Scottish Code of Practice will adhere to the common aims, objectives and guiding principles as set out in the revised UK Code of Practice, but will reflect the different organisational structure within Scotland. Work is underway with NHS Boards to co-produce a model to manage international recruitment in the future. This new NHS Scotland recruitment centre will undertake an advisory role with Boards to ensure that recruitment is aligned with the aims of the Code of Practice.

For the current financial year, 2020-21, the average Band D council tax charge in Scotland is £1,308 - significantly less than the average band D charges in England and Wales for the same period which are £1,818 and £1,667 respectively.

Our draft budget set out that £90 million is being made available to support local authorities in 2021-22, giving them the opportunity to freeze council tax at 2020-21 levels and protect Scottish households from council tax increases equivalent to around 3%.

As Councils are not required to set the council tax rate that will apply in their local authority area in 2021-22 until 11 March, figures for the average Band D charge will be published in early April, with the equivalent charges for England and Wales also expected to be available around that time.

As I set out on 23 February 2020 ( Support for mesh victims - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , we have continued work to establish a Case Record Review for women who have raised concerns about whether their case records accurately reflect the treatment that they have received, specifically in relation to full and partial removal of mesh. This Review will give women an opportunity to set out their concerns and have their records reviewed by clinicians to allow for discussion, explanation and mutual understanding.

I am pleased to be able to announce that the Review Panel has now finalised and I have commissioned Professor Alison Britton to lead the Review as the Moderator. Alison Britton is a Professor of Healthcare and Medical Law at Glasgow Caledonian University and previously conducted the “Investigative Review into the process of establishing, managing and supporting Independent Reviews in Scotland”, published in 2018. I am pleased that Professor Britton has agreed to take on this role.

Professor Britton will be joined by three experienced clinicians and an administrator. The clinicians joining Professor Britton on the Review Panel are:

Professor Anthony Smith,

Professor of Urogynaecology, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre,

Consultant Gynaecologist (retired)

Mr Ian Currie,

Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust,

Vice President, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 2011-2016

Dr Carey Lunan MBE,

GP, NHS Lothian,

Chair of Royal College of GPs, Scotland, 2017-2020

Finally, Mrs Irene Brown, who worked with Professor Britton on the 2018 Review will join the Panel as the administrator.

The Panel members have been chosen based on their individual qualities, expertise, knowledge, authority and standing.

Professor Britton will shortly be inviting women who are eligible for the Review to take part. In the first instance, the Review will be offered to those who attended the meetings in November 2019 with the First Minister and myself. This is to ensure that the Review achieves its purpose. However we will consider whether we can offer more women a review using a similar model in the future.

The Review is entirely voluntary and does not, in any way, replace the processes that are already in place for an individual to raise a complaint or pursue legal action.

The First Minister and I take the commitment we made to women at our meetings very seriously and regret that the COVID-19 pandemic unavoidably delayed this work. I hope that this important work helps those who have concerns about their mesh removal.

Credentialing

In light of concerns that have been raised with me, in person by patients, in the media and also in the Scottish Parliament, I have written to the General Medical Council (GMC) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) to express my support for the introduction of a GMC approved credential in mesh removal surgery.

As Specialist Centres are established across the UK, credentialing will define the skills required to perform mesh removal surgery, and set out how these skills can be acquired and assessed. By formally recognising the skills of our surgeons, credentialing will provide assurance for patients and the service, will reduce the risk of harm and will help improve public confidence.

We have reviewed the border health measures closely over the last 28 days and have assessed that there continues to be a requirement for the regulations to remain in place to reduce the risk of imported transmission and safeguard public health in Scotland. The regulations continue to be an important and proportionate part of the Scottish Government response to managing the pandemic.

The role of international travel in bringing in new cases, and the increased risk presented by variants of the virus emerging in other parts of the world, meant we took steps to strengthen regulations in response early in 2021. This included suspending the country exemption process and requiring pre-departure testing of passengers. We intend to introduce additional changes to further enhance our package of border health measures in the course of the next review period of the regulations, including managed isolation of international arrivals.

Following identification of a new variant of coronavirus in Brazil, the Scottish Government as part of a four nations response has decided to impose additional restrictions on all arrivals from countries in South America – Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. These measures will also apply to several countries and territories with strong travel links to South America; namely Portugal, including Azores and Madeira, Panama, Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) and the British Overseas Territory the Falkland Islands.

The Scottish Government also supports the UK Government’s intention to use reserved immigration powers to implement a travel ban for arrivals from these countries. With the exception of British and Irish nationals, visa holders and permanent residents all arrivals from the affected countries will therefore be denied entry to the UK from 0400 on Friday 15 January. British and Irish nationals, visa holders and permanent residents are still required to isolate with their households for 10 days, and will not be able to use exemptions from isolation.

We have also made the decision this week to remove Aruba;Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba; and Qatar from the country exemptions list due to concerning data on coronavirus in those countries. These changes will also come into force at 0400 on Friday 15 January

The Scottish Government intended to introduce pre departure testing on Friday 15 January. The UK Government has announced overnight that they would be delaying the implementation of pre-departure testing until Monday 18 January, to allow international arrivals and international passengers time to prepare. The Scottish Government is therefore also obliged to delay implementation to allow for coordination between the UK Government’s regulations and the relevant Scottish regulations. Pre departure testing will now come into force at 0400 on Monday 18 January.

Further information on these changes is available here; Coronavirus (COVID-19): international travel and quarantine - gov.scot ( www.gov.scot )’