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As a priority action within our Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan and as a 100 Day Manifesto Commitment, the Green Jobs Workforce Academy will be launched in August 2021. This reflects the Scottish Government’s commitment to ensuring Scotland’s workforce has the skills to support the transition to net zero.

Through the new online resource, individuals will be able to access information and careers advice on green jobs and the skills required to enter into or progress in them, and identify courses and funding available to support their upskilling or retraining.

In 2019-20 and 2020-21, the National Transition Training Fund has already been supporting workers whose employment has been affected by the pandemic upskill and retrain, including for jobs in sectors that will be critical to a just transition.

The full Native Woodland Survey of Scotland (NWSS) data set has been available for free download from the Scottish Forestry open data web pages since January 2020.

Prior to that it has been available on the Forestry Commission Scotland web pages since 2014.

The Scottish Government follows the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Guidance in developing guidance as the vaccination programme makes progress towards increasing levels of COVID-19 immunity in the population. Current JCVI advice remains that the single greatest risk of mortality and severe disease from COVID-19 is increasing age and COVID-19 risk increases exponentially with age.

Following the recent JCVI advice, young people aged 12 to 15 with severe neuro-disabilities, Down’s Syndrome, immunosuppression and multiple or severe learning disabilities, as well as people who are household contacts of individuals who are immunosuppressed, will be eligible for vaccination soon. The JCVI is not currently advising routine vaccination of children outside of these groups, based on the current evidence.

All young people 16 to 17 years of age will now be offered the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination in Scotland. In line with the latest advice from the JCVI, they will be offered a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. People who are 16 or 17 in mainland Scotland will be invited to register their interest through the online portal at NHS Inform, and will then be sent an appointment via SMS or email. Eligible young people in Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles will be contacted by their health board and invited to attend clinics.

Drop-in clinics are available for 16 to 17-years-olds. Anyone who doesn’t register an interest or attend a drop-in clinic, will be sent an appointment invitation through the post. It is expected that everyone in this age group will have been offered a vaccination appointment by the end of September.

The advice to protect against the risks of contracting COVID-19 or developing any associated ‘Long COVID’ signs and symptoms, remain the same for those who are vaccinated as those unable to receive vaccination for medical reasons. There is further detailed advice available, which is continuously updated in line with protection levels advice, for those who have been shielding for health reasons published here: Coronavirus (COVID-19): shielding advice and support - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Like all medicines, no vaccine is completely effective, but we do know the vaccination of a high proportion of the population will assist in reducing symptomatic disease and transmission. As the vaccination programme progresses, the Scottish Government advises everyone to follow the protection level rules set for each Local Authority area, as well as to follow general public health guidance issued on non-pharmaceutical measures which help to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

In addition to the individual level of protection against severe disease or hospitalisation afforded by vaccination, a further benefit of the vaccination programme is to assist in developing widespread community immunity and thereby reduce the force of transmission and viral reproduction rate, controlling the prevalence of COVID-19.

Research by Public Health England (PHE), which monitors vaccine efficacy within the UK, shows that those who became infected 3 weeks after receiving one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccine were between 38% and 49% less likely to pass the virus on to their household contacts than those who were unvaccinated. Protection was seen from around 14 days after vaccination, with similar levels of protection regardless of age of cases or contacts. Data is published here: One dose of COVID-19 vaccine can cut household transmission by up to half - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . Further research into the COVID-19 vaccines’ impacts on transmission is underway.

The inoculation of a large proportion of the population will help to provide a degree of ‘passive protection’ in the community for those who cannot receive vaccination for medical reasons and those who may develop a weaker immune response to vaccination due to old age, immunosuppression or illness.

Details of the grants awarded by Scottish Government through the Forestry Grant Scheme is shown in the following table:

The National Transition Training Fund (NTTF) had a committed budget of £25m for 2020-21. Delivery of Year 1 projects completed at the end of July 2021 and a report on outcomes will be published later this year.

The First Minister announced a further £20m of funding on 16 June 2021, for an initial tranche of projects as part of the second year of the Fund. We continue to carefully monitor skills needs, particularly as the UK Government’s furlough scheme comes to an end.

Based on available data, between October 2020 – March 2021, the number of places delivered in Year 1 of NTTF was 6,327. Some projects are still to report final figures as delivery continued until end July 2021.

Final delivery figures for Year 1 will be published when all provision is complete. The sectors supported in Year 1 are listed below:

• Tourism and Hospitality
• Transport - Aviation
• Aerospace
• Rural
• Land-based/Aquaculture
• Forestry
• Seafood
• Screen
• Culture and Creative Industries
• Further education
• Higher education
• Energy
• Digital

As delivery under Year 2 has not started yet for many projects it is not possible to provide information on the number of applications that have been approved, rejected or are yet to be processed. The funding is being delivered through various sector-based projects which will have different application procedures and target audiences specific to the needs of the sector. The sectors supported in Year 2 are listed below:

• Transport - Aviation
• Seafood
• Tourism and Hospitality
• Adult Social Care
• Health and Social Care
• Land-based/Aquaculture
• Open University
• Childcare - Early Years
• Cyber Security
• Digital
• Rural
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Culture and Creative Industries
• Crofting
• Screen
• Aerospace
• Construction (Green)
• Energy
• Historic Environment (Green)
• Forestry
• Higher education
• Further education

The regulated childcare sector is operating throughout the summer and The Scottish Government created guidance to support this. Organised children’s activities are also operating with guidance available, which has been updated in line with easing of restrictions.

The Scottish Government have invested £20 million into the Get Into Summer initiative. This funding is providing targeted and wider support for Local Authorities and national partners to ensure that more children have access to play experiences during the summer. As part of that, guidance was provided to encourage Local Authorities to work with partners including early learning and childcare and school age childcare providers.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government in terms of its marketing and communication planning, utilises a number of communication channels, to reach those that are hesitant under the generic campaign, Roll Up Our Sleeves, targeting 18-49 year olds.

It is a matter for each individual Public Body to decide how to address Fair Work First in their procurement processes, with decisions being taken on a case-by-case basis. In doing so, all Bodies are expected to apply the Fair Work First criteria to all new regulated procurement processes from 1 April 2021, wherever relevant and proportionate to do so. This procurement process commenced prior to 1 April 2021.

Information from National Records of Scotland (NRS) is in the following table. Background information on how National Records for Scotland record deaths can be found at: Deaths - Background Information | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk)

Deaths from Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome 1 , by age, sex and ethnic group, 2010 to 2019