Hansard

As was noted at your committee last year, “Health and social care partnerships are not designated as first or second responders in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, which governs the overall structure of the resilience programme for local, regional and Scottish resilience partnerships.”—Official Report, Health and Sport Committee, 7 June 2020; c 5. Therefore, although integration joint board chief officers have already been contributing to local emergency and resilience planning—including, notably, during the Covid-19 pandemic, in areas such as personal protective equipment hubs and supporting those who are shielding—they have done so formally only through their roles as directors of health boards and local authorities, and without the appropriate reference to their accountable officer status in the integration joint boards. Following that meeting in 2020, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport confirmed to the committee that, given our recent experience of mobilising services to respond to Covid-19, it is recognised that IJBs should be included as responders in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and that we would make arrangements for that change to be made in legislation. We subsequently laid the SSI on 18 January 2021. As the committee will be aware, the integration joint boards are responsible, as a minimum, for planning a significant proportion of the adult health and social care functions that are being delivered. Ensuring that IJBs are at the centre of emergency planning enables all the bodies that are accountable for community health and social care services to be appropriately represented. By including IJBs as category 1 responders, we will ensure that, where there is risk of an emergency that will impact the functions that are delegated to IJBs—including in relation to our on-going pandemic response—formal, co-ordinated and appropriate arrangements will be in place for emergency planning, information sharing and co-operation with other responders, as well as for joined-up information sharing and advice for the public. The amendment to the 2004 act will therefore provide an overall structure for resilience planning that will ensure that our health and social care partnerships are built into the framework. A consultation about including IJBs as category 1 responders took place on Citizen Space between 12 October and 22 November last year. The purpose of that was to ensure that the inclusion of IJBs would have no significant wider impacts or unintended consequences under the Equality Act 2010, including the fairer Scotland duty. An equality impact assessment was undertaken, as was a fairer Scotland duty assessment. After considering all the responses to the consultation, the Scottish ministers concluded that there are no clear equality, operational or strategic planning barriers to progressing the proposal and legislating for the inclusion of IJBs within the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 as category 1 responders. The inclusion of IJBs will ensure that formal, co-ordinated and appropriate arrangements are in place for emergency planning to support local communities. Members will be aware that the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the technical, legal and drafting points of the proposed change and did not make any comments on the instrument. I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak to the SSI. I am happy to take any questions that members might have.