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To help free up capacity during the initial coronavirus outbreak, Health Boards were asked to postpone non-urgent operations and procedures to allow vital NHS staff and resources to be redeployed to support the response to the pandemic. All Health Boards were written to in March 2020 and asked to take a structured approach to scaling down all non-urgent elective procedures, making clear that urgent, maternity and vital cancer services should remain.

From May 2020, while NHS Boards needed to maintain capacity for the priorities of COVID-19 as well as continuing to provide urgent, emergency, maternity care and support the care home sector, they started to use spare capacity to safely and incrementally restore services which had been paused. In restarting paused services, each Health Board, whilst ensuring their approach was consistent with national guidance, made their own decision on which services could safely and effectively be resumed; as informed by local circumstances; and both local and national clinical priorities.

National screening programmes restarted over summer 2020 in a phased way with an initial focus on higher risk screening participants, with all adult screening programmes now running again, including those for breast, bowel and cervical cancer.

Remobilising and supporting the NHS remains one of the Scottish Government’s top priorities and the NHS Recovery Plan will be published shortly. This will set out how we will continue to support patients to receive the highest quality of care; safely and effectively expanding NHS capacity whilst ensuring operational resilience.

Published data on performance is available at

Due to the presence of new and emerging COVID-19 variants of concern, vaccine efficacy is continuously monitored and assessed. Public Health England (PHE) monitors the efficacy of COVID 19 vaccinations currently approved for use in the UK.

On 14 June PHE published its most recent analysis on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against hospital admission with the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant, first identified in India. The analysis suggests the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 96% effective against hospitalisation after 2 doses and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is 92% effective against hospitalisation after 2 doses.
‎ Note: These data remain subject to peer review.

Table 1: Estimated vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation

As I announced in June, the recommendations from the Review will be taken forward by an Eating Disorder Implementation Group. I am pleased to confirm that Dr Charlotte Oakley, who was previously the Clinical Lead of Connect-Eating Disorders in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and who co-led the National Review, has been appointed Clinical Lead and will Co-Chair the Implementation Group with Dennis Robertson.

In addition, I am also pleased to confirm that we will be providing over £400,000 to Beat to provide the following services for children, young people, adults and their families:

• Helpline - A dedicated phone line for Scotland.
• Nexus – A Carer telephone support programme which provides a weekly scheduled coaching call to support recovery.
• Synergy - A new service that provides direct support to under 18s and their families through weekly sessions over Zoom.
• Solace - Structured weekly peer-to-peer support groups for carers via Zoom.
• Motivate - Weekly support for those aged 18+ to ensure service users remain motivated while waiting for treatment for anorexia or bulimia to begin.
• Bolster - Weekly support through telephone sessions for Adults (aged +18) who are unable to access treatment.Developing Dolphins - Training to empower carers to provide the best possible guidance as they help a loved one towards recovery
• Coping with Celebrations - Two workshops delivered over Zoom by experienced eating disorder clinicians and lived experience tutors in which, parents, carers, siblings are given tools and confidence to manage what can be very stressful times. This can include, Christmas, birthdays or meals out.

The Scottish Government takes the welfare of all animals very seriously; and provision is made for the keepers of all animals to provide for their welfare under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

The Scottish Government will monitor the progress of proposed EU legislation on animal production methods and will seek to remain aligned with any changes that are made.

The terms of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) contract, requires the operator to ensure lifeline support to the emergency services is available when required. This includes during periods of disruption, or if capacity is restrained such as during the Covid-19 pandemic as a consequence of physical distancing.

In addition, and in agreement with Transport Scotland, CalMac also has a protocol in place that ensures an island resident can attend a medical appointment on the mainland at short notice.

Whilst the Scottish Government supports and encourages employers to pay the National Living Wage as well as employees’ rights, collective bargaining agreements are a matter for CalMac and Northern Ferries, its employees and the recognised trades unions.

Transport Scotland, through its Trunk Road Operating Companies and Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) Concessionaires, is responsible for the management and maintenance of the strategic trunk road network, including motorways. Repair of potholes on all other roads is the responsibility of the local authorities.

The following table shows the number of potholes reported or identified on the trunk road network since 2007, by financial year. Transport Scotland’s asset information system does not hold this data prior to 2007.

The Scottish Government fully funds the inspection and repair of all high risk category 1 defects (for example vandalism flooding, spills and potholes), on the trunk road network. The repair of all category 1 defects is funded from commercially sensitive monthly sums and cannot be provided. Transport Scotland’s asset information system does not hold the cost of repairing individual defect types such as potholes.

Trunk road investment is not allocated, recorded or reported on the basis of local authority area.

Since 2007, this Government has invested £4.35 billion in managing, maintaining, and safely operating the Scottish trunk road and motorway network. In 2021-22, we will invest £529 million, an increase of £59 million from 2020-21.

The budget for structural repairs and network strengthening of trunk roads and bridges, including the Forth Road Bridge, is being increased by £46.5 million in 2021-22 to £207 million. The budget for routine and winter maintenance of trunk roads is being increased by £12.5 million to £106.9 million.

We will continue to invest in our extensive trunk road maintenance and operations programmes, to improve Scotland’s road network through essential road maintenance schemes, our bridge strengthening programme, renewal of ancillary assets and increasing the resilience of the network to unplanned events such as landslides, flooding and extreme weather events.

The increases in Network Strengthening and Structural Repairs budgets will provide further investment to support our programmes of essential road carriageway maintenance and bridge strengthening and repairs contributing to our commitment to double investment in maintenance of existing assets over the next 5 years.

In addition, the overall condition of our network is being enhanced through the delivery of our capital investment programme.

The Alternative Certification Model (ACM) for national qualifications in 2020-21 has been designed to give schools the flexibility to assess learners at times and in ways that are appropriate to their specific needs. This has been enhanced by a programme of support provided by the wider education sector.

As a result, the additional workload will vary and be subject to decisions at a local school level, in terms of their approach to delivering the Alternative Certification Model.

The Alternative Certification Model required teachers to ensure learners receive their national qualifications, based on their professional judgement of demonstrated attainment. We have recognised this unprecedented responsibility through the payment of up to £400 for each teacher involved in supporting the delivery of the ACM, and providing two days set aside during the school year for teachers to work on the assessments.

Employee pay and conditions are the responsibility of Pentland Ferries in relation to its ferry operation. We have not held any discussions with them on this matter.

Free school meals are a vital support to thousands of children and young people across the country - ensuring that children have access to a free, healthy and nutritious meal on every day they are in school and are ready to engage in learning.

The Scottish Government and our local authority partners have reached agreement to introduce universal free school lunches, during school term-time, for children in primaries 4 and 5 during the course of the current financial year. Universal provision for all children in primary 4 will begin in August 2021, whilst universal provision for all children in primary 5 will begin in January 2022.

We are providing local authorities with £28 million in this financial year to deliver this commitment, which will see around 90,000 additional children become newly entitled to receive free school lunches during the course of the forthcoming school year.

We will continue to work with our partners in local authorities over the coming months to ensure that our commitment to expanding the universal provision of free school lunches to include all primary school children, during term-time, is delivered by August 2022.