Chamber and committees

Scottish Government Officials are working closely with SEPA to ensure that there is minimum disruption to elected representatives and members of the public. SEPA quickly re-established key services after the cyber-attack and SEPA’s Service Status page, which details the status of SEPA services, continues to be updated on a weekly basis, on Fridays. Since the cyber-attack on 24 December, MSPs and MPs have had regular updates from SEPA on the criminal attack. All of these updates have provided elected members with a consistent route for enquiries. The most recent update, on 15 February, provided a new dedicated interim email for MSP enquiries which is now operational.

SEPA is able to receive emailed queries from the public through a contact form on SEPA’s website. For planning queries via the website, planning managers are triaging and responding to these, mostly via telephone, on a prioritised basis. Information on SEPA services and the cyber-attack is available on the SEPA website, which also hosts information and advice for regulated business.

The £500 recognition payment relates to staff covered by NHS payment and remuneration arrangements and staff in organisations registered with the Scottish Social Services Council. For other key workers, it will be for their employers to determine their remuneration and any additions to existing pay which may be appropriate.

The majority of cancer treatments have and will continue throughout the pandemic. Some patient’s treatment plans will change to minimise their individual risk. Those that require changes will always be done on a clinical basis and will be in discussion with the patient and clinical team.

The National Cancer Treatment Group (NCTG) has been established, to provide national oversight for recovery of cancer treatments during the recovery phase of the NHS from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Cancer Recovery Group has also been established to provide strategic end to end oversight of cancer services, oversee national data and modelling work in relation to cancer recovery and advise on patient and public communications. It regularly monitors ongoing delivery of cancer treatments in Scotland through the use of management information provided by Boards.

Survival from cancer since the COVID-19 pandemic began will not be reported in Scotland until 2023 for two reasons: there is not yet long enough follow-up time nor has every case of cancer up to 31 st December 2020 been confirmed. Survival from cancer is usually reported at 1 and 5 years after diagnosis. Complete information on people diagnosed and treated in 2020 will not be available until April 2022 because time is needed to gather reliable information from multiple records. Survival rates for people diagnosed in 2020 will then be published in January 2023.

As a rapid proxy measure of new cancer diagnoses, the Public Health Scotland Covid-19 wider impacts dashboard https://scotland.shinyapps.io/phs-covid-wider-impact/ presents numbers of individuals from whom a pathology sample found cancer in 2020 and compares them to 2019.

An investment of up to £114.5 million will support cancer patients to have equitable access to care regardless of where they live. The Cancer Recovery Plan will improve patients’ experience of care, and roll-out innovative treatments to improve cancer services.

Based on the clinical advise, neither egg nor penicillin allergies are contraindications to the COVID-19 vaccine

More general information can be accessed via Covid-19 leaflet here: COVID-19 vaccination What to expect leaflet (healthscotland.com)

Under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, local authorities have wide-ranging powers to award bespoke non-domestic rates reliefs to reflect local needs and circumstances. This may apply to a sole business, sector or area. The relief may be an adaptation of an existing national relief scheme or a unique standalone award.

Local authorities are also able to offer discretionary hardship relief to reduce the non-domestic rates liabilities of ratepayers experiencing sustained hardship.

In addition to local discretionary reliefs, vacant and empty properties may be eligible for mandatory empty property relief, which delivers 50% relief for 3 months (for non-industrial properties) or 100% relief for 6 months (for industrial), and 10% thereafter. It also delivers 100% unlimited relief to certain empty properties such as listed buildings and properties in administration.

The Scottish Budget 2021-21 also expands a number of reliefs which directly respond to the challenge of COVID-19 the non-domestic rates system. This includes Fresh Start Relief which now delivers 100% relief to premises that have been previously unoccupied for over 6 months and that have a rateable value of up to £95,000, and is designed to encourage the reoccupation of previously unoccupied properties.

The Scottish Government provides support for individuals affected by redundancy through our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE initiative. Despite restrictions in place as a result of the pandemic, we are continuing to provide PACE support through the PACE Helpline, Skype, Teams, webinars and enhanced online resources.

On 8 October 2020, we launched the £25 million National Transition Training Fund to help people aged 25 and over who have lost their jobs or who are at risk of redundancy, to develop the skills required to move into sectors with the greatest potential for future growth and job opportunities.

We are providing an additional £100 million for targeted employment support and training. We have worked closely with Skills Development Scotland and other agencies to both re-purpose existing support for individuals and quickly develop a range of new programmes and support to address the risk of increased unemployment.

The stage 2 proceedings for the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill concluded on Wednesday 17 February 2021. Given the importance of Redress Scotland being independent, the burden of proof lies with the applicant. This means it is for the applicant to establish the facts of their application to the required standard. However, we want survivors to be able to access the redress they deserve, and, as has been explicitly recognised within provisions of the Bill, support will be provided to help applicants obtain evidence. This may include practical support in accessing records or other information, as well as emotional support throughout the process. We do however, recognise that in some exceptional cases, the evidence may simply not be found. In these exceptional cases, after all avenues have been exhausted, it is anticipated that the guidance materials will provide that the decision-making panel of Redress Scotland will be able to consider the account provided by the applicant, and use its discretion to determine whether it is satisfied that the applicant meets the eligibility criteria despite a lack of documentary evidence (for instance taking into account whether it would be expected that documents from an institution or organisation would be available).

The standard of proof that has to be satisfied is the civil standard of proof, “on the balance of probabilities”. This means that something was ‘more likely than not’ to have occurred. While a civil standard of proof will apply, redress will operate in fundamentally different ways to traditional civil legal action. The redress scheme will not have to establish liability and can take a different approach to the consideration of evidence. For example, the same rules on the admissibility of evidence will not apply, nor will the survivor be cross–examined on their account. The Bill as amended also contains a presumption of truth, meaning that the starting point for the decision-making panel is that the information provided by the applicant is true and accurate to the best of the applicant’s knowledge and belief. Survivors can be assured that the scheme has been set up because they are believed and that they will be helped in accessing any and all information and evidence to support their application in meeting the necessary standard of proof.

The stage 2 proceedings for the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill concluded on 17 February 2021. As amended, the Bill applies the civil standard of proof - “on the balance of probabilities”. The Bill therefore provides that where someone can prove to this standard that the local authority both arranged and paid for their attendance at a fee-paying denominational private boarding school in Scotland where they were subject to abuse prior to 1 December 2004, they will be entitled to a redress payment. It will be a matter for Redress Scotland to determine whether, on the balance of probabilities, an applicant is eligible for a redress payment and the level of the redress payment to which they will be entitled.

The Scottish Government believes that no death by suicide should be regarded as inevitable. Immediate support is available to anyone who is experiencing distress or symptoms of depression by contacting a local GP, NHS24, and NHS Inform website.

In August 2018, the Scottish Government published its new Suicide Prevention Action Plan " Every Life Matters ". A two-year review of the Plan was published in February 2021.

In response to the effect which COVID-19 has had, the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG) released a COVID statement in July 2020. This set out its intention to prioritise actions on: mental health and suicide prevention training; public awareness campaigns; models of crisis support; innovations in digital technology, and; data, evidence, monitoring and guidance.

In October 2020, the Scottish Government published Scotland’s Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan . This outlines the Scottish Government’s response to the mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and is comprehensive, containing over 100 actions. The plan also outlines what the Scottish Government are committed to doing on suicide prevention.

The Scottish Government is currently working with COSLA, along with NSPLG, in considering how a future longer-term suicide prevention strategy could be shaped.

The South West Scotland Transport Study (SWSTS), published in January 2020, includes the option for re-opening of a railway station at Thornhill within a package of measures to deliver new stations on the Glasgow South Western Line, such as at Cumnock, Thornhill, Eastriggs, Pinwherry, Dunragit and South of Ayr. This package is subject to more detailed appraisal within the second Strategic Transport Projects Review.