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The Scottish Government appointed Dr Colin Church to act as Chair of the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland. As independent Chair, Dr Church determined the Review process, including seeking evidence from stakeholders through a written Call for Evidence and commissioning further research to inform the Review. Dr Church also held a series of public stakeholder events, which were attended by representatives from the waste industry as well as community groups, local authorities, non-governmental organisations and members of the public. Following these events, which were open to any individual or organisation who wished to attend, Dr Church held invitation-only roundtable discussions, one of which focused on representatives from industry and trade bodies.

The identification, assessment and management of people with long-term effects of COVID-19 in Scotland is guided by the UK-wide clinical guideline developed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the Royal College of GPs.

This guideline is clear that there is no requirement to prove previous COVID infection via a positive test in order to access an assessment or be considered for referral for further investigations or specialist input.

The Scottish Government is actively supporting the implementation of the clinical guideline in Scotland, including through our long COVID ‘Implementation Support Note’ and our collaboration with SIGN on its online ‘Decision Support Tool’ on managing the long term effects of COVID-19.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Public Health Scotland is not currently able to report accurately on waiting times to this level of detail. More detailed information on the procedure(s) that are planned or undertaken for a patient will be held locally by NHS Boards. We would therefore advise contacting NHS Boards to obtain this data.

PHS continues to work in collaboration with the Scottish Government, NHS Boards and key stakeholders to improve waiting times information. Statistics relating to the waits patients experience for Inpatient or Day Case treatment at specialty level are published up to 31 December 2021 in the following link.

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/11657/ipdc_feb22.xlsx

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07632 on 19 April 2022. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07632 on 19 April 2022. 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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The pandemic has seen the NHS under the most severe pressure in its 73-year existence. Pausing of non-urgent activity has taken place in health systems across Scotland, and the UK, which has inevitably led to a build-up of the numbers of people waiting for treatment.

Through the NHS Recovery Plan, the Scottish Government continues to work with Health Boards, including NHS Grampian to support and prioritise recovery for planned care.

While NHS Grampian is working locally to increase capacity and reduce waiting times for patients waiting for surgery, specifically prioritising Cardiac Surgery wherever possible, the Golden Jubilee National Hospital has been providing dedicated additional capacity for people waiting on cardiac surgery. This has paused briefly due to staffing pressures at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital as a result of the pandemic but will be reinstated as soon as possible.

Where a patients procedure is cancelled, NHS Grampian will try to reschedule this as soon as possible.

We are facilitating discussion with NHS Tayside and NHS Grampian to work towards opening additional capacity at Stracathro Regional Treatment Centre to further support both Boards. The National Treatment Centres will provide the single biggest increase in planned care capacity ever created in the NHS.

The Scottish Government published the framework for clinical prioritisation, which provides NHS Scotland with clear principles for prioritising planned care while ensuring appropriate COVID-19 safety and priority measures are in place. This guidance provides clear guidance on determining a patient’s clinical urgency and sets out review stages to ensure each individual patient’s case is assessed regularly to ensure the most appropriate care.

We are extending the retail, hospitality and leisure relief by offering 50% relief for the first three months of 2022-23, capped at £27,500 per ratepayer. This follows 100% relief for retail, hospitality and leisure premises for the past two years without any cap. We are also maintaining a competitive package of reliefs, including the UK’s most generous Small Business Bonus Scheme which takes over 111,000 properties out of rates altogether.

Throughout the pandemic we have consistently delivered more direct support to business than we have received in consequentials and recognise the difficulties the necessary additional public health measures brought for businesses including retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.

In December we announced a £375m support package for firms impacted by the necessary measures introduced to control the spread of Omicron.

We also announced an £80m Covid Economic Recovery Fund for local authorities to support local economies and cities recover from the pandemic. This fund empowers councils to consider the needs of local businesses, communities and households and to target support to maximise economic recovery in their areas.

All non-domestic properties are valued periodically at a revaluation and the resulting ‘Rateable Value’ applies for the full period of the valuation cycle. Values are benchmarked against same date for all properties which is called the ‘tone date’. Both of these features ensure fairness for all ratepayers. The tone date for the current 2017 revaluation cycle was 1 April 2015. For the next revaluation cycle taking effect on 1 April 2023, the tone date is 1 April 2022.

The valuation of all non-domestic property is a matter for the Scottish Assessors, who are independent of central and local government. The Assessor uses the established legal framework to determine premises’ rateable values based on the notional rental value that they could be expected to attract on the open market if they were vacant and to let.

Since the start of the pandemic, businesses have benefitted from over £4.5 billion in support from the Scottish Government. This includes COVID-19 non-domestic rates reliefs which have saved businesses around £1.6 billion in reduced rates bills since 1 April 2020. Responding to a key ask from the business community to avoid a cliff edge return to full rates liability from 31 March 222, we are continuing relief for properties in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors at 50% for the first three months of 2022-23, capped at £27,500 per ratepayer.

Like all governments we were constrained by affordability and consequently it was necessary for difficult decisions to be taken. To date we have spent almost half a billion pounds more in support of Scottish businesses, compared with the funding we have received for that purpose from UK Government.

In February 2021 the Scottish Government proposed combining the Warm Home Discount (WHD) and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) together as a single, flexible fuel poverty scheme in Scotland. This was among our formal asks of the UK Government when we consulted about our Heat in Buildings Strategy.

In May the UK Government wrote to Scottish Ministers noting our proposal for a single scheme and their intention to use their reserved powers, as their planned reforms in England and Wales would require a separate scheme for Scotland. The UK Government proposed apportionment of funding for a separate Scottish WHD scheme based upon national shares of electricity and gas meter points.

Scottish Ministers replied in June highlighting our concerns about this approach and formally proposing a new single scheme. In July the UK Government requested further details from us and officials provided information about the legislative, administrative and targeting options being considered by Scottish Ministers.

In October, we asked for a response based upon this information and noting that a continuation of the current scheme could only be approved by the Secretary of State. Scottish Ministers wrote again in December seeking a decision or confirmation that the UK Government would extend the current scheme. In January 2022 UK Ministers gave their preferred option as being a continued GB scheme for ECO. They did not provide an indication as to whether any of our proposals would be agreed or not.

Despite having been asked three times, the UK Government has been unable or unwilling to provide a straight answer to our proposal of a single scheme.

Scottish Ministers cannot exercise relevant powers without the agreement of the Secretary of State. Therefore on 8 February we requested urgent confirmation that the UK Government would extend the current WHD scheme in Scotland to provide certainty for vulnerable households and energy suppliers.

Despite having asked how the current WHD scheme will be extended in Scotland on three occasions, we have still not received a response from the UK Government.

In the specific context of Scotland’s island communities and Scotland’s Census 2022, we are aware that the most significant barrier is likely to be digital connectivity. The Scottish Government Digital infrastructure strategy aims to: deliver 100% superfast broadband access across Scotland; improve the availability of mobile connectivity across the region, by using linkages to broadband availability; and, ensure the underlying infrastructure is in place to support the future growth of high-bandwidth connectivity.

We want everyone living in Scotland to be included in the Census, including those in harder to reach rural and island communities. Whilst the 2022 census will be predominantly online, paper questionnaires and support materials will also be available for those who are unable, or do not wish to, complete online. In addition, we have also: appointed a Regional Manager, based in Na h-Eileanan Siar, who will help bring local knowledge to our operational plans and support stakeholder engagement and partnerships throughout the highlands and islands; and, appointed Area Managers based in Argyll & Bute, Highlands, Dumfriesshire, Borders, Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney and Shetland Islands to support rural and island communities at local authority level. We are also on-boarding field force enumerators who will be allocated all across Scotland (where possible from those communities) to provide national help and support coverage on the ground, and will provide non response follow-up to ensure we are maximising response.

We are monitoring census submissions, nationally, regionally and locally and by Local Authority Area. This will allow us to identify any areas where we need to invest more effort in encouraging and maximising response.