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I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00341 on 17th June 2021, which states details concerning contractual arrangements for UK MoD projects are a matter between the UK Government and Babcock.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00017 on 24 May 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Diagnostic codes for post-COVID-19 syndrome, or long COVID, were recently added into the primary care information systems used by GP practices. Guidance on coding has been issued to GP Practices, most recently in the Scottish Government ‘Implementation Support Note’ published on the SIGN website.

NHS Education for Scotland has an educational session, which covers long COVID, scheduled in August as part of its series of online webinars for primary care clinicians. All of their resources for health and care staff related to COVID-19 can be found on their dedicated Turas Learn Site ( ). In addition to their own resources, they plan to signpost through Turas Learn to appropriate resources on long COVID developed by partner organisations as these emerge.

The University of Edinburgh’s EAVE II project has used pseudonymised GP and other patient data to track the COVID-19 pandemic as it unfolded across Scotland, and its analysis has helped inform Scottish Government policy.

That project now has funding from the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office to use this pseudonymised data to investigate long COVID. The project will generate analysis on the number of people assessed as having long COVID. This analysis will be shared with the Scottish Government and will be used to inform the planning of services for people with long COVID. The analysis will inform publications on long COVID in due course.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides details on the number of people who have been vaccinated by Health Board and age profile. This information is detailed here .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00341 on 17 th June 2021, which states details concerning contractual arrangements for UK MoD projects are a matter between the UK Government and Babcock.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Given the importance of sandeels to the wider ecosystem and the subsequent benefit in aiding long-term sustainability and resilience, it remains an overarching Scottish Government position, which is reflected in Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy, not to support fishing for sandeels in our waters. During the parliamentary session on the 09 June, I committed to looking at this issue as a matter of urgency and to consider what additional measures we can put in place to manage the North Sea sandeel fisheries in the most sustainable way possible.

There are also a number of measures already in place for the protection of sandeel stocks in the North Sea. The Northeast UK closed area means that that over half the grounds of sandeel area 4 are closed to fishing. In addition, the Scottish Government has made major steps in protecting areas of key importance to sandeel through the designation of a network of Marine Protected Areas focussed on areas important to sandeel populations.

Luss Bay has a designated Bathing Water and is given special protection to ensure it is safe for people to swim in during the bathing season, which normally runs from 1 June to 15 September. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has determined the current bathing water quality classification at Luss Bay as 'sufficient" and reports that there has not been any significant deterioration in annual trends at this location. The storm rainfall event last summer on 5 August 2020, did result in a poor water quality, but this was predicted by SEPA, and an appropriate poor water quality warning to the public was in place via SEPA’s real time electronic signage.

The public sewerage network in Luss, including Luss Bay, is a relatively small catchment and there are no combined sewer overflows from Scottish Water’s network in this vicinity to Loch Lomond. The Luss public sewerage network drains to Scottish Water’s Waste Water Treatment Works (WwTW). During the bathing season, to protect bathing water quality, Luss WwTW uses ultraviolet treatment to disinfect the sewage effluent. Scottish Water works with SEPA very closely and through regular monitoring has not found issues with respect to its discharge in the area. The final effluent discharge from the WwTW is sampled on a regular basis and Scottish Water is not aware of breaches of its license parameters.

Overall, SEPA classifies the environmental water quality of Loch Lomond as good for the north area and moderate for the south due to impacts from agriculture. Through River Basin Management Planning, carried out by SEPA on behalf of the Scottish Government, measures are planned to address the impacts from agriculture to ensure Loch Lomond can recover to good water quality status. SEPA and Scottish Water have also worked together to inspect the sewer network along the beach area at Luss Bay and no issues have been discovered.

Of course, the Scottish Government will continue to work together with stakeholders to ensure bathing waters reach the best possible status.

The 119 Freephone COVID testing helpline was made available to callers from Scotland on Friday 23 April 2021. The 119 Freephone service provides callers the option to report lateral flow device (LFD) test results, and can also be used to:

• order LFD test kits for home delivery
• provide support when booking a PCR test
• report test kit problems
• provide translation services

This number will run alongside the original 0300 303 2713 helpline number (which charges from some networks) until further notice. Both numbers reach the same call handlers.

LFD test results can also be reported online at GOV.UK. Reporting LFD tests results online or via the 119 service helps us to find community outbreaks, understand infection rates across Scotland and enable contact tracing.

The Out of Home sector has an important role to play in providing access to affordable, healthier food and in helping people make informed choices.

Our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan includes specific actions to help families make healthier choices, including when eating out. As part of this, we are considering consulting on mandatory calorie labelling for food and drink purchased out of home.

The Delivery Plan is at .

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which is the UK body responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe, and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), an independent clinical group of experts that provides all Governments in the UK with advice on vaccinations, both concur that the evidence shows that, overall, the benefits of vaccination, including vaccinating the under 30 year olds, outweigh the risks. In coming to this conclusion, both organisations looked in detail at all the evidence from the clinical trials undertaken by the pharmaceutical companies and the post-approval authorisation monitoring of the vaccines. The JCVI also reviewed and took into consideration the latest available evidence on the current UK COVID-19 infection rate, the scale and pace of the vaccine programme and modelling of the timing and size of any likely third pandemic wave. It is important that all those who are eligible and advised to be vaccinated take up the offer of a vaccine, and complete the course for maximum protection.