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Under Regulation 4 of The Non-Domestic Rates (Coronavirus Reliefs) (Scotland) Regulations 2020, 100% relief is available in 2020-21 for properties that are:

• used as an airport, prescribed in schedule 2 of the regulations (Aberdeen International, Barra, Benbecula, Campbeltown, Cumbernauld, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Glasgow Prestwick, Inverness, Islay, Kirkwall, Oban, Stornoway, Sumburgh, Tiree, Wick John O’Groats)
• situated at such an airport and wholly or mainly used to provide one or more handling services for scheduled passenger flights, or
• occupied by Loganair Limited.

Handling services are defined in regulation 4(7) of The Non-Domestic Rates (Coronavirus Reliefs) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 as any of the following activities—

(a)in relation to aircraft—

(i)de-icing,

(ii)re-fuelling,

(iii)moving aircraft,

(iv)waste servicing, and

(b)in relation to aircraft passengers—

(i)allocation of seating,

(ii)handling of baggage,

(iii)supervision of boarding.

The administration of non-domestic rates reliefs, and the interpretation of the relevant legislation, is a matter for local authorities.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) allocates funding announced in the SG Scottish Budget to each institution on an annual basis. With the exception of any controlled subjects, it is then the responsibility of each institution to determine how best to utilise their funding allocation and determine their own curriculum offer and course provision in line with the economic needs of their region.

Ministers recognise that the withdrawal of funding from the business degree programme at West Lothian has caused concerns for students and have brought these to the attention of the SFC. Edinburgh Napier University has stated that it remains committed to delivering and growing its articulation routes and partnership working including with West Lothian College in line with previous Outcome Agreements with the Scottish Funding Council.

The Clinical Priorities Unit currently has six people seconded at B2 and B3 salary bands to deliver policy on chronic pain and other long-term conditions. A number of the secondments are from third sector organisations: Action for ME, Versus Arthritis, Children's Hospices Across Scotland, British Heart Foundation and, the Alliance.

Disclosing salaries and names of team members would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Policy responsibility sits with the Healthcare Quality and Improvement Division.

Issues raised in Spaces for People correspondence relating to Edinburgh schemes include: lack of consultation, monitoring of projects, the statutory powers used to implement measures, concerns around the potential for increased congestion, reduction in air quality, reduction in car parking spaces, dangers at junctions and the effect on businesses.

The Scottish Government’s Standards of Care for Dementia set out standards for the prescribing, use and review of psychoactive medications across all care settings. Such medication should be prescribed following appropriate individual clinical assessment and consultation with families and only after all other alternatives, including therapeutic interventions, have been explored. The Scottish Government funds two national dementia workforce programmes to support implementation of the standards.

In September, the Scottish Government produced a communication on psychoactive medication prescribing and review which was circulated by Care Inspectorate to care providers. This communication summarised and reinforced current guidance on the prescribing and review of psychoactive medication for people with dementia across all care settings.

Clinical staff will always make individual clinical decisions and will assessments on prescribing antipsychotic medication based on patient risk factors, benefits and existing conditions.

The Scottish Government’s Standards of Care for Dementia set out standards for the prescribing, use and review of psychoactive medications across all care settings. Such medication should be prescribed following appropriate individual clinical assessment and consultation with families and only after all other alternatives, including therapeutic interventions, have been explored.

The risk of blood disorders (leukopenia/neutropenia/agranulocytosis) which involve a reduction in the number of white blood cells involved in the immune response is a recognised adverse drug reaction for antipsychotic medicines. A reduction of these blood cells can lead to an impaired immune response and an increased risk of infection. The risk of blood disorders when using antipsychotic medicines applies to all patients taking these medicines regardless of their age.

A list of the recognised side effects for every antipsychotic medicine is provided in the product information which accompanies the medicine. This includes the product’s Summary of Product Characteristics for healthcare professionals and a Patient Information Leaflet. The product information for each antipsychotic medicine can be found on the electronic Medicines Compendium website at www.emc.medicines.org.uk .

The use of Near Me has grown rapidly since March, with over 18,000 consultations now taking place each week. This has grown from around 300 per week pre-covid. Near Me was a Programme for Government commitment and we want to continue to build on this success. We also recently undertook a public engagement exercise on the use of Near Me where we had important patient views as well as positive engagement with MacMillan, Marie Curie and Hospices across Scotland who gave helpful insights into where video consultations worked very well and also where face to face or phone was preferable. The summary report can be found here - https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-clinician-views-
video-consultation-executive-summary/pages/1/

Continued engagement with key partners and with the public will continue to be important on how we deliver this service.

Near Me was developed with patients and clinicians so that it is as easy to use as possible for as many people as possible, though it won’t be for everyone and we will always ensure that a face to face or telephone appointment is available to those who need them. It also offers other benefits including reducing the need to travel and therefore helping the environment.

The National Cancer Treatment Response Group was superseded by the National Cancer Recover Group (NCRG) on 04 June 2020 . https://news.gov.scot/news/prioritising-cancer-services

The NCRG regularly reviews non validated and unpublished management information to inform its work and has overseen the development of a National Cancer Recovery Plan which will be published shortly.

We are actively identifying doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and support services staff, who had expressed their interest in returning to service via the NHS Scotland Accelerated Recruitment Portal, to assist with the forthcoming Covid-19 vaccinations programme.

Additionally the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer have written jointly to professional regulators to seek assistance with identifying further suitably qualified personnel who may be on the temporary or emergency registers. We remain in active dialogue with both the regulators and with health boards, in order that they can now take forward appropriate additional recruitment from within these pools.

We will take a sustainable approach to assessing the ongoing workforce and workload requirements associated with the programme. This includes supporting boards to take forward new temporary and permanent recruitment, and working with primary care, pharmacy, dentistry and optometry colleagues who all have a significant contribution to make. Further we are working across the public sector, with local authority partners and with the military, to ensure we have the right end-to-end logistics and delivery infrastructure, as we take forward the largest vaccination programme ever delivered in Scotland.