Chamber and committees

I will bring in Professor Gunson. I am sorry, but we have only a couple more minutes before we have to finish.

I will bring in Jim Fairlie, very quickly.

Thank you. That is us at time today. I thank all the witnesses for their evidence and for giving us their time this morning. If any of you would like to raise any further evidence with the committee, you can do so in writing; the clerks will be happy to liaise with you on how to do that.

The committee’s next meeting will be in the new year, and the details will be published on our website in due course. That concludes the public part of our meeting this morning. We now move into private session.

Thank you, deputy convener. I apologise to everyone for my late arrival, which is due to my having to deal with another matter. I also apologise if I should repeat any questions.

I thank Dr Isabel Fletcher for her written evidence, which was based on research conducted by her and Professor Catherine Lyall. It noted some interesting things, such as:

“In crisis situations, people initially turn to their existing networks for assistance with unexpected and urgent tasks.”

It also highlighted that

“the climate crisis will result in increasing threats to human health (including future pandemics) demanding responses that span public health, animal health and environment. This, in turn, will require more joined-up approaches with effective day-to-day working relationships”

with the Scottish Government and other agencies.

My colleague John Mason said that it was suggested that there would be benefit in creating a post of chief scientist for public health. Are there any other ways in which such approaches could be co-ordinated by the Government?

That is helpful. Thank you.

That is really helpful.

I will move to my next question. Do you feel that Scotland is well placed at the moment for any future pandemics, as well as for any other threats, such as antimicrobial resistance?

Good morning, and welcome back. I apologise again for being late this morning. We have received apologies from Alex Rowley.

We continue to take evidence on Covid-19 surveillance. Our second panel of witnesses will be giving evidence on genomic sequencing. I welcome to the meeting Professor Sharon Peacock CBE, executive director and chair of the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium, who joins us remotely; Mike Gray, service manager for laboratory medicine at NHS Lothian; who joins us in person; Dr Kate Templeton, head of molecular diagnostics in microbiology, virology and molecular pathology, and director of the sexually transmitted infections and viral genotyping reference laboratory at the royal infirmary of Edinburgh—that is a mouthful; Professor Rory Gunson, consultant clinical scientist, and virology clinical lead and laboratory director of the west of Scotland specialist virology centre at Glasgow royal infirmary, who joins us remotely too; and Professor Matthew Holden, COG-UK principal investigator at Public Health Scotland.

Welcome, everybody. I thank you for giving us your time this morning, and for your recent submissions. We estimate that the session will run up to about 11.20, and each member should have between 12 and 15 minutes to ask their questions of the panel.

For the witnesses who are attending remotely, if you would like to respond to an issue that is being discussed, you can just type an R in the chat box and I will try to bring you in. I am keen to ensure that everybody gets an opportunity to speak, but I apologise in advance in case, if time runs on too much, I have to interrupt members or witnesses in the interests of brevity.

I invite the witnesses to introduce themselves briefly, starting with Professor Sharon Peacock.

Good morning, and welcome to the COVID-19 Recovery Committee’s 27th meeting in 2022. This morning, we will conclude our evidence taking for our inquiry into the pandemic’s impact on the Scottish labour market.

I welcome from the Scottish Government Richard Lochhead, the Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work; Lewis Hedge, deputy director, fair work and labour market strategy; and Dr Alastair Cook, principal medical officer, mental health division. Before we ask questions, would the minister like to make brief opening remarks?

We are running short of time, but on the same subject, the national strategy for economic transformation included a commitment to launch the centre for workplace transformation, which would give employees guidance on flexible working. Can the minister or Lewis Hedge give us an update on that?

That would be great, because the committee has a keen interest in hybrid and flexible working.