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Additional funding of £1.08 billion has been confirmed through the Scottish Budget for health and care for 2021-22 to support the response to the pandemic.

From this, the Scottish Government is providing an initial £380 million to NHS Boards in 2021-22 to meet ongoing costs associated with Covid-19. This includes funding for PPE, Test and Protect and delivery of Covid-19 vaccinations.

The Scottish Government will continue to ensure that our health and care services have the funding that they require to respond to this pandemic, and will make available further additional support following our detailed Quarter One financial review.

Details of funding allocations to NHS Boards are set out in the following table:

Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government is investigating potential options to ensure that consumers and the wider public can have confidence in the reliability of private PCR tests.

We have issued guidance for employers on setting up private testing programmes which includes information on seeking assurances around test quality: Coronavirus (COVID-19) - employee testing programmes: guidance for employers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

UK Government legislation regulating the Coronavirus test devices can be found here: The Medical Devices (Coronavirus Test Device Approvals) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (legislation.gov.uk) .

Applications for the Legal Aid Traineeship Fund are sought from all legal firms/organisations across Scotland, including those in the Northern Isles. The Scottish Government and the Law Society agreed that all posts must be externally advertised including on the lawscots.jobs website. The criteria for the Fund explicitly states that all reasonable steps must be taken by legal firms/organisations to use an open, fair, and diverse recruitment process.

The Law Society are responsible for the administration of the Fund and further information on the eligibly criteria can be found here: https://www.lawscot.org.uk/qualifying-and-education/qualifying-as-a-scottish-solicitor/the-traineeship/funded-legal-aid-traineeship-scheme/ .

Following the pause of the breast screening programme in March 2020, there was a staged restart. This was based on expert clinical advice and the recommendations of the Scottish Screening Committee, and was agreed with Health Board Chief Executives as part of the planned remobilisation of the NHS. The breast screening programme resumed on 3 August 2020, initially prioritising those whose appointments were cancelled or delayed due to the pause. The programme is now at the stage of offering routine appointments for eligible women aged between 50 and 70.

The recovery of the breast screening programme, including reviewing the pause to self-referrals for the over 70s is monitored by the Breast Screening Programme Board, the National Screening Oversight Board and the Scottish Screening Committee. It should be noted that the risks and benefits of breast screening for people over the age of 70 have not been clearly established. Covid-19 and the measures to control its spread, such as physical distancing and the use of PPE, also continue to pose challenges to capacity in the screening programme. The decision to maintain the pause on self-referrals for the over 70s, though difficult, was therefore taken to allow the service to prioritise those who require to be offered appointments and for whom screening has clear benefits.

The Scottish Government has not received representation within the last 12 months from either Cancer Research UK, or any other cancer charities regarding breast screening for the over 70s. However, there is representation from cancer charities on decision-making committees, including Cancer Research UK on the Scottish Screening Committee and Breast Cancer Now on the Breast Screening Programme Board. This ensures they are regularly updated on the status of the breast screening programme, including the pause of self-referrals for people over 70.

Data reporting the overage self-referrals is not published with the Breast screening statistics by Public Health Scotland. However, data collated for the Breast screening review for the 3 year period from 2016-17 – 2018-19 reports a total of 32,492 self-referrals from women age 70+ over the period and equates to 5.7% of total screening activity.

The numbers who may attend marriage ceremonies, civil partnership registrations, funerals and wedding receptions and post-funeral gatherings in public places both indoors and outdoors are set out in guidance. These numbers only apply when the venue has sufficient capacity to hold them, with physical distancing. The position on permitted numbers at these events is as follows:

Level 0 - No more than 200 people should attend

Level 1 - No more than 100 people should attend

Level 2 - No more than 50 people should attend

Level 3 - No more than 50 people should attend

Level 4 - No more than 20 people should attend

Receptions and post-funeral gatherings are not permitted at protection level 4.

We have published guidance on marriages, civil partnerships and receptions and funerals and post-funeral gatherings. I would be happy to write to the member with further information about any points of clarification required.

The pause to self-referrals for women over 70 is a temporary measure that is regularly reviewed by the Breast Screening Programme Board, the National Screening Oversight Board and the Scottish Screening Committee (of which the Scottish Government is a member). It will be lifted as soon as capacity allows. Meantime, the Scottish Screening Committee, the National Screening Oversight Board and the Programme Board are working with NHS NSD and Health boards to understand how the capacity challenges might be overcome.

Further to previous question - 'To ask the Scottish Government what the total catch is that has been landed by domestic and foreign vessels in Scottish ports in each month between (a) January and May 2020 and (b) January and May 2021.'

Data broken down to Domestic and Foreign vessels.

Provisional monthly data on landings (liveweight tonnes) by UK and Non-UK vessels into Scottish ports, January-May 2020 and January to April 2021

The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) continue to work with health boards to support their planning and the safe delivery of immunisation services during the pandemic.

In Scotland, there is no 18 month target for second dose as the JCVI recommends a schedule of 0, 6-24 months for all HPV vaccines. Further information can be found in The Green Book Chapter for HPV. Additionally, the data for HPV immunisation programmes is collected by NHS Board reflecting that NHS Boards deliver the HPV immunisation programme to pupils.

The latest HPV immunisation statistics published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) for academic year 2019/20 show that uptake for the HPV vaccine remains high. Further information is available online on the PHS website: HPV Immunisation Statistics Scotland 22 December 2020 - Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org)

Public Health Scotland collate data on the HPV vaccination programme for the previous school year every autumn. Data for school year 2020/21 will be collated in autumn 2021 and published in November 2021. Therefore, we cannot provide information on the most recent school year.