REHIS News

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have published statistics that cover work-related ill health and non-fatal workplace injuries in the 2020/21 period.

The annual report by HSE found that in Great Britain 1.7 million working people are suffering from work-related ill health around half of which were stress, depression or anxiety and that 142 workers were killed at work in this time period.

Two new estimates have been developed to measure the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic;

Come and meet Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) – and find out more about Scotland’s new, post-Brexit environmental oversight body

You are invited to attend an online information session about the new organisation. Two events are being organised – one targeted at community groups, grass-roots organisations and members of the public, and one open to anyone with an interest in ESS' role.

The information sessions are being held on:

12:30-13:30 Friday 21^st January 2022

Thousands of COVID-19 cases have been detected by the Asymptomatic Testing Programme, a Scottish Government evaluation has found.

More than 6.6 million LFD results reported by Scots were considered in the Asymptomatic Testing Programme Evaluation which looked at nine testing pathways including community testing, early learning and childcare settings and the Health and Social Care workforce.

Due to the urgent threat posed by Omicron’s much higher transmissibility than other variants of coronavirus (COVID-19), additional targeted measures to minimise contacts will come into force for at least three weeks to allow immunity from the accelerated booster vaccine programme to take effect.

All measures will be reviewed after three weeks on Tuesday 11 January at which point protection from booster vaccinations up to 31 December - when the Scottish Government is aiming for 80% of over 18s to have received their booster - will be maximised.

The Scottish Government has developed leaflets for butchers and hunters to promote Trichinella testing and to raise the awareness of the risks associated with selling untested feral pig or wild boar meat. 

The revised FSS Wild Game Guide has been published and can be found on the FSS website. 

The Scottish Governement have launched a consultation on a new National Litter and Flytipping Strategy which proposes a range of measures to prevent litter and flytipping, improve data and strengthen enforcement.

Fines for flytipping could be more than doubled (from £200 to £500) as part of proposals being consulted on. The consultation also asks if they should be raised beyond this cap.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has published Official Statistics which provide detail of Household Waste collected for all 32 of Scotland’s Local Authorities during 2020, along with additional commentary for the whole of Scotland

The Scottish Government have announced that Scotland's deposit return scheme will now not be in place until 16 August 2023.

The flagship scheme to boost recycling via a 20p deposit added to a drink that comes in a single-use container made of PET plastic, steel and aluminium, or glass, was originally due to start in April of this year.

This was then put back until July of next year - but has now been delayed for a further year.

The announcement follows an independent review, which considered the impact of COVID-19 on the scheme.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) has launched a new online public health learning hub to support those working in our public services.

The hub will allow those working in local government, NHS, third sector and community-based organisations to learn more about factors that influence health. It will also provide guidance on how to embed health and wellbeing into professional roles to ultimately improve population health and reduce health inequalities.

Claire Sweeney, Director of Place and Wellbeing at PHS said: