Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government reconvened the Burial Regulations Working Group (first established in 2016) on 9 December 2021 to continue work to develop burial regulations, as provided for in the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016.

At that meeting the Group reassessed the remit and membership of the Group, progress to date and the approach to take going forward.

The membership of the Group includes both public and private burial authorities, third sector organisations, special interest organisations and funeral sector trade organisations, ensuring views from across the sector are represented.

The Group agreed that the membership be expanded to the wider funeral sector, and invitations to join the Group are being sent to the identified parties. It would not be appropriate to share members’ details until the membership is agreed.

The minutes of the previous meeting will be published on the Scottish Government website once they have been cleared by the Group.

The Scottish Ambulance Service does not record data on use of community first responder schemes (CFRs) by health board area but is fully aware of the volunteer resources available throughout the country to support operational delivery.

CFRs are highly valued by the Service and are a dedicated, motivated and valuable asset to the communities they serve. CFRs form an integral part of the Service’s response, particularly with instances of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests. They do. however, work to a clinically assured scope of practice, which is supported by appropriate training to complement, but not replace, the emergency ambulance response in particular circumstances.

During times of crisis and major events, such as storm Arwen, CFR volunteers, as members of local communities, may provide assistance to the relief efforts but they would do so as individuals and not as representatives of the ambulance service.

The list of private providers is owned by the UK Government. All providers included on the list must complete or be working towards full United Kingdom Accreditation Service accreditation. If a provider does not complete this or fails the accreditation then they are removed from the list.

Officials continue to work with UK Government to monitor performance of private tests providers. This is done at the private testing provider working group with the Department of Health and Social Care and the devolved administrations, which meet every 2 weeks.

The providers have various standards to meet, which are defined in our regulations and the key performance indicators (KPIs) that are set on turnaround times, customer service and sequencing requirements. Any provider not achieving these standards or engaging in unethical practices are removed from the list.

If individuals are having or have had an issue with a private test provider, they should first report this back to the provider. If they are not satisfied with this then they can submit a complaint here: https://enquiries.test-and-trace.nhs.uk/s/enquiries where the complaint will be investigated.

Vaccination is the best way to keep you, your friends, family, and community safe and we encourage everyone to consider getting the vaccine.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice changed on 15 November 2021. In the vast majority of cases a successful route to safe vaccination can now be found, a disability would not necessarily mean that an individual cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.

It is exceptionally rare to withhold vaccination, however, if vaccination is not straightforward support is available to help people achieve the benefits of protection from the Covid-19 vaccines. Local vaccination centres can help answer questions about the vaccine and can advise what arrangements may be put in place to enable safe vaccination.

In the rare cases where that support is provided and does not lead to vaccination then this will result in the person being identified as either able to safely receive the vaccine but decides not to do so and in this circumstance they will not be eligible for a medical exemption certificate; or they will be identified as clinically unable to safely receive the vaccine and in which case they will receive a secure paper exemption certificate in the post. All vaccine status certificates, including medical exemptions certificates, are time limited.

Further information on COVID-19 Status Certificates and about medical exemptions from them is available from NHS Inform , the COVID Status Helpline on 0808 196 8565 , or local vaccination centres.

The 2015 - 2021 Flood Risk Management Strategies included 42 formal flood protection schemes. Local authorities are expected to start work on development of these schemes by 2021. However as flood protection schemes can have significant impacts on individuals, communities and the environment, and so require careful and detailed planning and consultation, it is recognised that construction work may not be completed within the 2015-2021 timeframe.

Schemes (a) under construction are as follows:

The following formal flood protection schemes are complete.

The Scottish Government is not able to provide legal advice. However, the making of a false statement on oath may involve the common law offence of perjury or a contravention of a statutory offence under section 44 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 .

Conducting proceedings in a manner amounting to an abuse of process may also involve contempt of court and result in the person responsible incurring a penalty. There is provision on penalties for contempt of court in section 15 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981.

The Scottish Government does not intend to review existing legislation in this area at the present time.

Storm Arwen was one of the most significant weather events we have experienced in decades and, unfortunately, the impact of Storm Arwen on Scottish Water’s infrastructure was very significant and widespread due to the loss of normal power supply to a substantial number of their sites as well as challenging conditions which caused delays and difficulty accessing some areas. Scottish Water worked round the clock to prepare for the storm, to restore water supplies and to support customers impacted by the storm.

Scottish Water has confirmed that they have issued apology letters, which include an offer of compensation, to those customers who had their water supply interrupted for greater than 24 hours. The payments being offered vary depending on how long a property was without water. They have also asked for feedback from these customers on the service provided during storm Arwen with a view to learning from this event and supporting future emergency responses.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has operational responsibility for our Modern Apprenticeship (MA) programme. Official MA statistics are published quarterly by SDS, including the number of starts, however a breakdown by month is not available.

The total number of MAs recruited by each occupational grouping is published at the end of each year, as recruitment of apprentices is carried out throughout the year. The MA 202-/22 Q4 (Year End) statistics are expected to be published in May 2022.

There are a large number of Small and Medium Enterprise businesses who take on smaller numbers of cohorts each year. The table below shows the top three employers who have recruited the largest number of MAs each year since 2019 and the volume of MA starts each year:

The COVID(O) committee met on 14 December (attended by myself, and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer) and all 4 nations agreed to remove all 11 nations (including Angola) from the red list. This came into effect from 0400 on Wednesday, 15 December. Thus there is no requirement for an exemption being arranged