Chamber and committees

Our enterprise and skills agencies provide funding and specialist advice and support for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) to help them better transition to a low carbon economy, with the majority of services advertised through the Find Business Support website. Tailored support includes advice on the low carbon opportunities available to SMEs in the net zero supply chain.

The Scottish Government has committed over £2 billion of capital funding over the next parliament to deliver low carbon and natural infrastructure. This includes our Green Jobs Fund, which is a five year, £100 million fund offering capital investment to businesses to help them create green employment through investment in improved green products and services and related research and development.

On 22 November Child Disability Payment was launched across Scotland. This has followed an initial pilot, whereby families of children and young people with a disability living in Dundee City, Perth & Kinross and Western Isles council areas, could apply for the benefit.

We have received positive anecdotal feedback throughout the pilot. Both parents and support workers have said that the application process has been easier and less daunting, and that the support offered by Social Security Scotland has been helpful and caring.

The first high level statistics covering the first 5 weeks of the pilot were published on 18 October 2021 and are available at gov.scot . The next set of Child Disability Payment statistics are due to be published in January 2022. This will cover the period from 26 July to 21 November 2021, and will provide us with the data that will allow us to carry out a more detailed evaluation.

We have also been inviting clients, staff and stakeholders to take part in research to share feedback and help us learn from their experience of the service during the pilot phase. This will be published in Spring 2022. Research will continue beyond national launch as we continue to look for ways to improve and enhance the service for the people of Scotland.

As set out in Evaluating the Devolution of Disability Benefits , we will begin a thematic evaluation of the policy changes that are being implemented with the roll-out of the disability benefits, including use of supporting information, client consultations and supporting information.

During 2021-22 the main focus will be to define the size, scope and research questions, and assessing the potential methods and data sources available. In addition, we have commissioned the evaluation of Child Winter Heating Assistance to report in Summer 2022.

More people than ever in Scotland are being offered the free flu vaccine to help protect as many lives as possible this winter. The flu vaccination programme commenced on 6 September and will run until March 2022.

We are seeking to offer the flu vaccine at the same time as providing COVID-19 boosters for everyone eligible, 6 months should have passed since a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine before a booster is administered. However there is some flexibility to offer a booster vaccination to the most vulnerable groups after five months.

This means that this is the biggest and most complex vaccination programme there has ever been, and has led to some people being offered their flu vaccine slightly later than normal but they will still receive them within the recommended timescale.

We remain on track with Scotland’s autumn/winter vaccination programme which has been prioritising the most vulnerable by either inviting them to come forward for a vaccination or by visiting in settings such as care homes.

The online self-booking portal for adults aged 50 to 59, those over 16 who are unpaid carers and household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals launched on 15 November, with 1,940,611 people having received their flu vaccine in Scotland by week commencing 21 November

Crown Estate Scotland administer the ScotWind seabed leasing process. Crown Estate Scotland have stated an intended announcement date of mid-January 2022

No meeting took place between the First Minister or Scottish Government officials and former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney during COP26.

Between 24 February 2020 and 31 October 2021 there have been 6,348 COVID-19 cases that were probable or definite hospital onset.

1,973 were reported as probable hospital onset (first positive specimen on days 8 to 14 of admission to NHS board).

4,375 were reported as definite hospital onset (first positive specimen date was 15 or more days after admission to NHS board).

The rate of COVID-19 transmission in hospitals has followed a similar rate in the community. When community prevalence reduces, a general reduction in hospital onset COVID cases follows approximately two to three weeks later.

However, while community prevalence has recently increased, nosocomial cases of COVID-19 were observed to rise at a slower pace, which may be largely due to the vaccination programme.

While patients with COVID continue to be admitted to hospitals, the risk of transmission remains. We cannot be complacent and we must continue to ensure that all infection prevention precautions are strictly followed.

Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking children are able to access GP and NHS dental services on the same basis as domiciled residents.

GP practices receive a share of overall general practice funding from the Scottish Government based upon their estimated workload. This would reflect any unaccompanied asylum-seeking children registering with a GP practice.

Dentists are paid a range of fees and other payments by the Scottish Government for providing care and treatment to NHS patients.

We continue to engage with businesses including the hospitality sector about the Covid-19 status certification scheme. We have published the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment which considered the potential impacts on businesses.

There is already a process in place for doing this across the Common Travel Area, and work continues to add additional countries to this service. Full details are available on NHS Inform – see https://www.nhsinform.scot/covid-19-vaccine/after-your-vaccine/get-a-record-of-your-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-status/ .

Public Heath Scotland publish a weekly COVID-19 statistical report every Wednesday which includes this information. As at 15 November 2021 the COVID Status app had been downloaded over 1.5 million. It is important to note a single user may choose to download the App on multiple devices so this total figure does not represent unique individuals.

As we do not track individual’s use of their certificates, it is not possible to indicate how many people have used their certificate.

For part’s (b) and (c), the Deputy First Minister wrote to the Covid-19 Recovery Committee setting out the information requested in detail. This can be accessed on the Scottish Parliament website here .