Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-00478

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether there has been in increase in cases of children being hospitalised as a result of COVID-19 in the six months up to June 2021.

This data is available on the Public Health Scotland Education Surveillance Dashboard which provides a three-weekly rolling average of hospital admissions for 2-17 years olds - COVID-19 Education Surveillance dashboard - Enhanced surveillance of COVID-19 in education settings - COVID-19 data and intelligence - COVID-19 - Our areas of work - Public Health Scotland

Equivalent weekly data for children under 2 years is not currently published however, data on Cumulative COVID-19 Hospital Admissions since the start of the pandemic is available and shows that as of 26 May 2021, 238 children between 0-4 years have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 since March 2020. The full set of data can be found here - https://www.opendata.nhs.scot/dataset/weekly-covid-19-statistical-data-in-scotland/resource/bd8a865f-10e6-47d2-a461-8633c61693fe .

Question reference: S6W-00453

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on prescriptions in each of the last five years, and how many people received a prescription.

The cost of medicines and appliances in the past five financial years, 2016-17 to 2020-21, is shown in Table 1. These data relate to community dispensing only.

Table 1 – Gross Ingredient Cost (£), 2016/17 – 2020/21 Year	Gross Ingredient Cost (GIC) (£)
2016-17	1,137,588,236
2017-18	1,170,761,719
2018-19	1,142,104,457
2019-20	1,175,878,909
2020-21	1,118,110,484

Source: Public Health Scotland, PIS (Prescribing Data)

Reference: IR2021-00410

The number of people who have received a prescription in the last five years has recently been provided in an answer to S5W-36221 on 30 April 2021. This presented the number of patients with a paid prescription by financial year from financial year 2009-2010 to financial year 2020-2021 (partial year to December 2020 data).

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

Question reference: S6W-00455

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what medicines are excluded from free prescriptions.

All medicines prescribed for patients in Scotland on the NHS are free. Prescription charges were removed by the Scottish Government in 2011. Scottish Ministers believe that prescription charges are a barrier to good health for many people. This is particularly so for those with long-term conditions and those on low incomes who in the past have faced choices about which medicines they can afford to take. Evidence shows that this can lead to deterioration in health, absence from work, or extra hospital admissions.

Scottish Ministers believe that healthcare should be free at the point of access for everyone: this is the founding principle of the NHS. By abolishing prescription charges, we have ensured that everyone can access the medicines they need and make choices about managing and improving their health, whatever their income.

Question reference: S6W-00477

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what recent research or assessment it (a) has carried out and (b) is aware of regarding the health risk to children from COVID-19, including from variant strains.

Question reference: S6W-00479

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether its assessment of the risk to children’s health from COVID-19 is being revised, and on what basis.

Question reference: S6W-00474

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people aged (a) under 12, (b) 12 to 15 and (c) 16 to 17 have been in hospital with COVID-19 each week in 2021.

This data is available on the Public Health Scotland Education Surveillance Dashboard which provides a three-weekly rolling average of hospital admissions for 2-17 years olds - COVID-19 Education Surveillance dashboard - Enhanced surveillance of COVID-19 in education settings - COVID-19 data and intelligence - COVID-19 - Our areas of work - Public Health Scotland

Equivalent weekly data for children under 2 years is not currently published however, data on Cumulative COVID-19 Hospital Admissions since the start of the pandemic is available and shows that as of 26 May 2021, 238 children between 0-4 years have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 since March 2020. The full set of data can be found here - https://www.opendata.nhs.scot/dataset/weekly-covid-19-statistical-data-in-scotland/resource/bd8a865f-10e6-47d2-a461-8633c61693fe .

Question reference: S6W-00476

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what reassurances it can provide to parents and carers regarding the risk of COVID-19 to young children, in light of comments by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care during a radio interview on 2 June 2021 that travelling from a Level 2 area to a Level 1 area to visit a soft play centre “could lead to hospitalisation of children”.

Question reference: S6W-00493

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the speed for offering invites for initial and second COVID-19 vaccinations in the NHS Lothian area is reportedly slower than in other NHS board areas.

NHS Lothian is performing in-line with the rest of Scotland and within national timeframes. All NHS Boards have the same timeframe in which to complete each JCVI cohort. There will be slight local variations in time taken to reach targets dependant on population demographics within each NHS Board i.e Lothian has proportionally the highest constituency population of younger adults. NHS Lothian have reached these targets for each cohort, with the percentage coverage for over 50s in line with the Scottish average.

The vaccination data are updated daily and can be found here: COVID-19 Daily Dashboard | Tableau Public

Question reference: S6W-00507

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to calls from the Scottish Environment Link coalition to introduce legally-binding targets to protect wildlife by 2022.

The Scottish Government is committed to action to protect wildlife and to the effective monitoring of progress towards this goal. The Scottish Government has recently added a new single high level indicator to the National Performance Framework which measures trends in marine and terrestrial biodiversity in Scotland.

We have committed to introducing an ambitious new Biodiversity Strategy for Scotland within a year of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties (CoP15) and the publication of a new global biodiversity framework. Policies to take forward our commitment to tackle the nature crisis and methods to measure progress in this regard will be considered as part of the development of this Strategy and its supporting delivery plan.

Question reference: S6W-00522

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 22 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many fishing vessels have been boarded for inspection by Marine Scotland in each month between (a) January and May 2020, and (b) January and May 2021, broken down by the nationality of the vessel.

Boarding inspections in Port can only be conducted if a vessel lands in a Scottish Port. Therefore this largely depends on what vessels land in Scottish ports.

The following table is a breakdown of Boarding inspections in port by Month (January to May) in 2020 and 2021, by nationality.

	Boardings in Port						Boardings in Port
2020	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	2021	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
DNK	2	1				DNK					1
ESP	6	2	1			ESP				1	1
FRA	5	6	5			FRA		2		2	1
FRO	3					GBR	51	18	33	31	39
GBR	116	94	54
NOR	2		2

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May		Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
UK	87%	91%	87%	0%	0%	UK	100.0%	90.0%	100.0%	91.2%	92.9%
Non UK	13%	9%	13%	0%	0%	Non UK	0.0%	10.0%	0.0%	8.8%	7.1%


	Landings						Landings
2020	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	2021	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
Denmark	2					England	62	56	56	65	72
England	79	63	88	37	61	France	3	17	33	24	24
France	20	29	37	25	37	Germany			1	1	2
Germany			1	1	2	Guernsey					1
Ireland				2		Isle of Man	1	6		4	3
Isle of Man	2	2	4	4	7	Northern Ireland	11	3	19	9	9
Northern Ireland	12	1	3		2	Norway	1			1
Norway	5	7	6	2	2	Scotland	3442	2571	3848	3550	2297
Scotland	3334	3132	3266	2045	3443	Spain		11	15	18	28
Spain	14	13	25	29	32	Wales					1
Wales	4	1	1		4

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May		Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
UK	98.8%	98.4%	97.9%	97.1%	97.8%	UK	99.9%	98.7%	98.8%	98.7%	97.6%
Non UK	1.2%	1.6%	2.1%	2.9%	2.2%	Non UK	0.1%	1.3%	1.2%	1.3%	2.4%

The following table is a breakdown of Boarding inspections at sea, by nationality for the periods January to May 2020 and 2021.

It is worth noting that on any given day the UK fishing fleet accounts for approximately 80% of vessels actively fishing in Scottish waters. It would therefore be reasonable to expect that 80% of our boarding inspections during any given period would be on UK vessels and the remaining 20% being foreign vessels.

As we work a risk based approach, our boardings will not always reflect nationality. Our boarding statistics indicate that 70% of our boardings are UK vessels, with the remaining 30% being foreign vessels, which would be proportionate to the fleet sizes.

	Boardings at Sea						Boardings at Sea
2020	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	2021	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
DEU						DEU	1	1		2
DNK						DNK	4		2	3
ESP						ESP				1	3
FRA			1			FRA	1			5	5
GBR	16	11	7			GBR		7	13	25	37
IRL		3				IRL	7				4
NLD						NLD				1
NOR		1	2

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May		Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
UK	100%	73%	70%	0%	0%	UK	0%	88%	87%	68%	76%
Non UK	0%	27%	30%	0%	0%	Non UK	100%	13%	13%	32%	24%

Please note, Covid restrictions were applicable from April 2020 and continue to be applicable now.

Mitigations have been put in place to allow boarding inspections to take place where safe to do so.

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