Chamber and committees

Since the start of the outbreak, Public Health Scotland (PHS) has been working closely with the Scottish Government and health and care colleagues to support the surveillance and monitoring of COVID-19 amongst the population. There is a large amount of data being regularly published regarding COVID-19. For example, the COVID-19 Education Surveillance dashboard is updated daily and published by Public Health Scotland. COVID-19 PCR test results in educational populations and settings are not broken down individually but are included as part of the wider community-wide surveillance in the PHS COVID-19 dashboard .

We are also reassured by PHS analysis on the risks to teachers when compared to similar working age adults. Analysis published in the BMJ shows that neither teachers, nor their household members, were at increased risk of hospital admission with COVID-19 when compared to similar working age adults from March 2020 to July 2021.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-03394 on 19 October 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Scottish Water is working in partnership with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) in the Chemical Investigation Programme (Scotland). Through environmental investigation this project identified chemicals of concern, their sources and concentrations leaving the sewerage system and how they should be addressed in the most sustainable way. The CIP 2 (Scotland) has provided a clear decision making framework for how compliance with the Environment Quality Standards Directive (2008/105/EC) and the subsequent revision (2013/39/EU) is to be addressed. To support this, an extensive monitoring programme of Priority Substances, substances with Environmental Quality Standards set by UK Technical Advisory Group on the Water Framework Directive (UKTAG)/Scottish Government (referred to as UKTAG Substances), substances of interest to SEPA (referred to as Watch List Substances), additional pharmaceuticals and sanitary determinands was conducted at 20 Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) within Scotland. At each site, sampling took place at the inlet to the WwTW, the final effluent discharge, and within the receiving watercourse upstream and downstream of the WwTW. The sampling programme took place between 2015 and 2020.

Pharmaceuticals are considered ‘contaminants of emerging concern’ and monitoring and assessing the risk to the water environment for many of these substances is still in the development phase. 23 pharmaceuticals were investigated during CIP2 Scotland. Following analysis with the PNEC (Predicted no effect concentration) the agreed approach with SEPA for 14 pharmaceutical was no further action. The agreed approach with SEPA for the 9 pharmaceuticals that were identified as substances of concern was to carry out a process optimisation study and to control them through source control. The next stage of this research, CIP3 Scotland, aims to carry out further sampling in relation to emerging pharmaceuticals and process optimisation trials at the WwTW in order to understand whether better treatment can be achieved at existing assets.

Scottish Water is also a member of the One Health Breakthrough Partnership ( www.ohbp.org ) which aims to reduce levels of pharmaceutical substances in the environment.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-03394 on 19 October 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
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There are no plans to renegotiate the Public Dental Service contract.

An increase in pay to use ATM’s, or the removal of existing ATM’s, will undoubtedly add to the uncertainty faced by communities and businesses on their ability to access essential services. Through engagement with the banking sector, via bilateral ministerial meetings and the Financial Services Industry Advisory Board (FiSAB), we will continue to urge all banks and ATM providers to listen to and address concerns customers have on their ability to access services.

The regulation of financial services is, however, reserved to the UK Government and as such Scottish Ministers are unable to intervene directly in the commercial decisions made by financial services companies. The Scottish Government stands ready to work constructively with the UK Government, banks and other stakeholders to ensure that customers, communities and businesses have access to the banking facilities they need.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01510 on 4 August 2021. I can now update that the cervical screening marketing campaign was launched on 11 October 2021. Although the primary focus of this campaign will be on encouraging those eligible to attend their cervical screening appointment when invited, the campaign will also provide information on screening intervals and the benefits of testing for human papilloma virus. Beyond this campaign, we will continue to work with our partners to identify further opportunities to communicate these important messages.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Scottish Government recognises the important role of prompt defibrillation in improving outcomes from Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA).

We are a key partner in Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS). The partnership published an updated OHCA strategy in March 2021. This sets out actions to improve outcomes from OHCA, including actions to improve the accessibility of defibrillators and increase defibrillation rates across Scotland. SALFS work in collaboration with local community groups, including those in rural and island communities, to ensure the implementation of the strategy addresses local needs.

The purchasing and placement of defibrillators is the responsibility of individual businesses, local authorities, organisations or community groups. For any groups or organisations interested in providing access to a defibrillator, the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) have details of providers and organisations that may offer funding towards the purchase of a defibrillator.

We are working closely as part of the SALFS partnership to build the evidence base required to make strategic decisions about the placement of defibrillators, to encourage their registration with Scottish Ambulance Service and to increase public confidence and knowledge around defibrillation. We believe that these actions will help us to increase bystander usage of defibrillators from 8 to 20% over the lifetime of the strategy.

The National Infrastructure Mission includes all capital investment made by the Scottish Government, including that which is aimed at boosting supply chains and promoting private sector investment in our infrastructure and wider economy.

The Capital Spending Review, published on 04 February, sets out the total funding available to support the National Infrastructure Mission: £33,461 million over 5 years. A breakdown of this investment is provided in Table 3 on page 17/18. Table 4 of the Capital Spending Review shows the allocations made to individual portfolios and Annex A shows level 2 and level 3 budget allocations, by portfolio, across the same period.

The Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP) lists in the Theme Chapters on pages 32 to 43 a breakdown of the main areas of investment by Scottish Government and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies – with a value of around £23.5 billion of capital investment. In addition, a value of £3 billion has been assumed for projects which are expected to be revenue funded. These two figures together are the basis of the £26 billion of investment cited in the Ministerial Foreword of the IIP.

The Infrastructure Investment Plan Pipeline, set out in Annex D, includes only a subset of the projects and programmes from the IIP total. Projects with a capital value of £5 million and Programmes with a £20 million value are included in this subset. As new projects and programmes are developed, they can be added to the pipeline when they are suitably ready, and consequently reported to the Parliament’s Public Audit Committee. This approach is explained on page 29 of the IIP.