Scottish Government consultations

We asked for your views on draft proposals to extend the effects of a coronavirus related modification to the Public Health etc. (Scotland) Act 2008. This Act includes a duty on Health Boards to provide compensation to those isolating as a result of an infectious disease. This duty was suspended by the UK Coronavirus Act 2020 on a temporary basis as part of legislative modifications deemed necessary during the pandemic.

The compensation duty in the 2008 Act was predominantly developed to address the support people who find themselves isolating would require where there was small-scale outbreaks of notifiable infectious diseases rather than to provide support at the scale that would have been required throughout Covid-19 pandemic.

Given the scale of support required for the large numbers of people who have been required to isolate, it has been considered a more proportionate use of public resources to introduce COVID-19 specific support schemes. These have included:

• the Self-Isolation Support Grant (SISG), a £500 payment for people who earn less than the living wage who are required to self-isolate;
• the National Assistance Helpline (NAH), a central support phone line that people self-isolating can call to engage the relevant local authority team who can triage their need for support whilst isolating; and
• the Local Self-Isolation Assistance Service (LSIAS), a pro-active service that phones people self-isolating who wish to receive the service to consider whether they require support with access to food, essential medication or other local voluntary sector and statutory services.

The proposal set out in the consultation was to bring forward primary legislation that would:

• extend the effects of the existing modification to the 2008 Act relating to compensation from the date the legislation was in force to 30 October 2022;
• set out reporting requirements to Parliament relating to the ongoing suspension of the provisions in the 2008 Act; and
• provide regulation making powers so that the expiry date of the suspension – when the duty on Health Boards would once again be in place – could be brought forward or extended.

We asked for your views on whether you agreed with the proposals, whether you agreed the Scottish Government should have powers to extend or expire them early, and on the conditions that should apply to using those powers.

We received a total of 14 responses to the public consultation. Of the 14 responses, 5 were received from individuals representing organisations and 9 were received from members of the public.

Overall, responses to the consultation were in favour of the proposed changes, with 78.5% of respondents agreeing with the proposal to modify the duty on Health Boards to make the payment of compensation related to self-isolation for COVID-19 discretionary; 78.5% of respondents were also in favour of the Scottish Government having the ability to vary the expiry date of these provisions - with 92.8% of respondents agreeing that these factors are the most appropriate consideration for the Scottish Government to take into account when considering extending or bringing forward the expiry date for these provisions.

Much of the written feedback received related to the need to ensure that isolation support, and support relating to Covid more generally, is provided at the right level and that there is sufficient public awareness for people affected by COVID-19.  This included comments relating to the levels of isolation support provided, the need to provide sufficient financial support and on some of the differential impact of COVID-19 on some groups with protected characteristics.

We have published non-confidential responses to the consultation and an analysis of the consultation responses.  Preparations are now underway for new regulation and the feedback received from this consultation will help shape that process.

Written feedback provided relating to levels of isolation support, views on COVID-19 support more broadly and the financial and other impacts on people of having to self-isolate have been passed to the relevant policy teams in the Scottish Government for further consideration.  This feedback will inform the ongoing consideration of isolation support for COVID-19 into the next stages of the pandemic, as well as how best Scottish Government can work with public and voluntary sector partners to minimise the differential impact that COVID-19 has across a range of different communities within the population.

It is our conclusion that the proposals can be taken forward and presented to Parliament for scrutiny.

The full analysis report can be found at: Coronavirus (Discretionary Compensation for Self-Isolation) Bill Consultation - Analysis and Response - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Published responses

View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.

The first phase of this study, the Initial Appraisal (Case for Change), was published in March 2021 and concluded that there was evidence for a ‘Case for Change’ within the study area.  We are now progressing through the Preliminary Appraisal stage of this process which involves reviewing the four Transport Planning Objectives agreed with stakeholders against a number of potential short, medium and long term intervention options and consulting with the public to understand wider views on each of these options.

For the Public Consultation we provided consultation material and a webinar, with a feedback form to record your views.  We asked for your views on a series of potential measures to improve safety on the A9 between North Kessock and Tore, including speed reduction and monitoring, junction and road layout improvements, public transport improvements and upgraded facilities for non-motorised users. These were split into packages according to their ease of implementation and potential construction timescales.

We received 753 responses submitted via the online consultation platform Citizen Space, with another 3 via email.  Most of the responses were positive towards the proposed safety improvements North Kessock and Tore.  The responses that received predominantly positive feedback were generally regarding signage and visibility. Enhanced cyclist signage, road markings and installation of street lighting received overwhelmingly positive responses as well as prohibiting certain vehicle movements such as U-turns. The prohibition of right-turns to and from the A9 were more evenly rated, but with a marginally positive score.  Options which proposed to reduce speed limits or impose enforcement measures such as safety cameras were not preferred overall and received negative responses on the whole. Additionally, the option to install traffic signals at the Tore Roundabout was seen as a negative impact. Responses applying to active travel provision measures such as a controlled pedestrian crossing at Tore Roundabout were mixed.  The suggestion of a pedestrian bridge or underpass at Tore Roundabout received very positive responses.  Options concerning active travel integration and improvement of pedestrian routes had neutral responses, with additional supporting comments suggesting that the some respondents did not perceive an issue, or they did not partake in active travel and therefore could not form an opinion.  Long-term options to improve Munlochy junction with as a roundabout or the creation of a single junction along with Artafallie received fairly mixed response, but the proposal for a grade-separated junction was overwhelmingly positive.

An analysis of the responses to the consultation has been published on the Transport Scotland website.  The responses to the consultation will help inform the development of the safety improvements between North Kessock and Tore, and form part of the ongoing appraisal.  

We sought views on a draft of the Aquaculture Code of Practice: Containment of and Prevention of Escape of Fish on Fish Farms in relation to Marine Mammal Interactions. We also asked for people’s views on accompanying reporting forms and a partial Business Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA).

A public consultation took place between 22 June 2021 and 3 August 2021.

We received 39 responses to the consultation of which 20 were from organisations and 19 from members of the public. We have published the responses received where the respondent has given permission for us to do so.

The majority of responses supported introduction of the Code of Practice with a range of comments and constructive suggestions for revision and improvement.

We published an analysis of the consultation responses:

https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802014037

We completed and published a BRIA:

https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802013993

The response to the consultation has been incorporated into the final version of the Code of Practice which is published on the Scottish Government website:

https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802014006