Chamber and committees

A web-based app has been developed as a means to collect data from those who agree to participate in the COVID in Scotland Study to understand the long-term health of people who have had COVID-19. This research study, led by the University of Glasgow in collaboration with Public Health Scotland and funded by the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office, is Scotland-wide. Invitations to take part in the study are sent via SMS to all adults in Scotland who have had a positive COVID-19 test with the app available to those that agree to participate to submit data on their symptoms. This approach using an app to collect data from study participants will be described and evaluated as part of the reporting of this study once completed.

The number of first and second doses administered per week to people living in the Scottish Borders has been sourced from Public Health Scotland. These data are from week ending 3 January to 20 June 2021.

Self-registration for 18–29 year olds closed on 11 June 2021. The online portal was part of the Scottish Government’s measures to widen the accessibility of vaccine appointments, and was extended for another week, on top of the original three week window. 40% of the young people aged 18-29 who were still to be vaccinated, self-registered on our online portal.

The 18-29 year olds who did not register online, are being scheduled for an appointment on the system this week, and letters are coming out over this week and next. However, to give advanced sight of appointments online, we are launching an appointment checker on NHS Inform to help people view their pending appointments. This will help those people, like students, who may have moved away from their registered GP term time address. This will also help them view their offered appointment earlier and chose to reschedule to fit with their work and life.

The Scottish Government utilises a vaccination management tool at the point of vaccination, the data forms used have built in validation to ensure the data entered are accurate. A new vaccination record is transferred to the National Clinical Data Store (NCDS) after 60 minutes. The layers of recording are updated from NCDS to the reporting dashboards, these are refreshed every two hours to ensure accurate recording.

The Scottish Government aim is that is that the public should be able to access COVID- 19 vaccinations they require, at the time and in the format that they need it in. We are actively investigating more interactive appointing systems, while recognising that this will not work for everyone and will be need to be accompanied by other ways of securing appointments.

As a Government we always looking to improve service delivery, and building on the success of the unpaid carers and 18 to 29 years old self-registration service, lessons learned from the implementation of the National Vaccination Scheduling Systems, is that there is an opportunity to move to a more person- centred appointments services with benefits for individuals and communities, alike.

We are adhering to the priority list devised by the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) who have advised an age-based programme will capture those with clinical risk factors as the risk of death is very strongly linked with age, more so than any other factor. A number of mountain rescue workers may fall into the priority risk groups set out by the JCVI based on their age and health; and these individuals will receive an invitation to their vaccine appointment.

In addition, some mountain rescue workers may be vaccinated as part of cohort 2 - frontline health and social care workers – but only when they are assisting other emergency services due to pandemic pressures, such as: the Mountain Rescue Service assisting Scottish Ambulance Service.

The Non Native Species Action Group met once in 2020. The group’s main purpose is to prioritise and coordinate action on invasive non-native species (INNS) in Scotland.

NatureScot and other public bodies take an operational lead on providing advice to land managers and coordinating priority action to control INNS. The lockdown in spring 2020 resulted in the cessation of fieldwork for the control of INNS, with work resuming under Phase 1 of the Covid-19 route map. However, in light of the current ‘stay at home’ regulations, engaging the public in voluntary work to manage INNS has been temporarily suspended by many projects.

Progress on rhododendron:

In March 2017, Scottish Forestry published An Approach to Prioritising Control of Rhododendron in Scotland . This document encourages landscape-scale partnership work, specifically within designated sites.

Scottish Forestry’s approach to controlling invasive rhododendron aims to ensure effective use of available funds by targeting entire local populations and focussing effort on priority areas. Rhododendron control plays an important part in restoring native woodlands, which was identified as a priority in Scotland’s Biodiversity: A Route Map to 2020 . Much of this work is being taken forward under the umbrella of the Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforests, a voluntary partnership of more than 20 organisations committed to collaborative action for the benefit of native woodlands. The Alliance aims to establish projects across the rainforest zone.

There are also additional projects in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National park near Aberfoyle and Inversnaid, tackling rhododendron at a landscape scale.

In 2019, NatureScot organised a sharing good practice event in Appin to share and learn from experiences of rhododendron control projects in Scotland.

Progress on other invasive species projects:

Scotland’s Biodiversity Route Map identified a number of other priority projects aimed at tackling invasive species:

• The Scottish Invasive Species Initiative partnership, which covers almost a third of mainland northern Scotland, is tackling a suite of invasive non-native plants (giant hogweed, Himalayan balsam, Japanese knotweed, American skunk cabbage) and the American mink. Since 2018 more than 50,000 volunteer hours have been provided to support American mink control and more than 15,000 volunteer hours to invasive plant control. The project has also supported 175 volunteers to gain formal qualifications to build capacity and skills to maintain control programmes beyond the end of the scheme.
• The Biodiversity Challenge Fund, administered by NatureScot, is providing additional funding for invasive plant control within Rivers Tweed and Endrick catchments.
• The Hebridean Mink Project, run by NatureScot, aims to prevent significant losses to ground nesting birds in the Western Isles. Mink numbers are now at very low levels, with only isolated animals being caught in certain areas of Lewis and Harris and North Uist. Large areas of the Outer Hebrides remain free of mink, to the benefit to the indigenous wildlife.
• The Uists are home to internationally important populations of ground nesting wading birds. Research carried out by NatureScot has shown that removing introduced hedgehogs can allow more wader nests to hatch successfully and give wader populations the best chance to recover. North Uist remains free of hedgehogs.
• The Shiants Seabird Recovery Project removed a population of black rats, which were threatening an internationally important seabird colony. The Shiant Isles were officially declared rat-free in 2018 and there are encouraging signs that storm petrels may be returning to the islands breed. Following on from this project, the RSPB-led Biosecurity for LIFE project is raising awareness of the threat of invasive predators and putting in place systems to prevent their accidental introduction to islands.
• Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels is a partnership project that is working to contain the spread of grey squirrels in Scotland. Thanks to the work of project staff and community volunteers, red squirrels have returned to the city of Aberdeen, and are continuing to hold their own in parts of southern Scotland and in much of the north of Scotland.
• Orkney Native Wildlife Project aims to ensure that the unique native wildlife of the Orkney Islands is safeguarded from stoats, which were first seen there in 2010. The project passed a significant milestone in February 2021 as the trapping team reported 1,000 stoats have now been caught.

It is too soon to introduce any form of certification. We need to know more about the efficacy of the vaccines, their impact on transmission and the length of immunity before it would be safe to introduce a vaccine certificate.

We continue to engage in national and international developments in relation to Coronavirus (COVID-19), including on the issue of vaccine certification. These discussions are led by the World Health Organisation and include consideration of technical details, ethical and equality issues, and privacy standards. The outcome of those discussions will guide our work in this area.