Chamber and committees

To control and reduce the transmission of COVID-19, routine eye and dental care services were suspended on 23 March 2020. Since then the Scottish Government has provided financial support to enable optometrists and dentists to safely manage most patients remotely.

Where face-to-face care is required, appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has been provided through NHS supply channels to community pharmacy practices, Emergency Eyecare Treatment Centres and urgent dental care centres during Lockdown and Phase 1. PPE has also been provided to community optometry practices and dental practices in advance of them resuming face-to-face emergency and essential eye care and urgent dental care (non-aerosol generating procedures) from 22 June and 29 June 2020 respectively.

Community optometry is the established first port of call for all eye problems in Scotland, and has the capacity to manage patients safely. Supported by a substantial package of financial support from the Scottish Government outlined in PCA(O)2020(4) , optometrists have managed the majority of patients remotely during Lockdown and Phase 1, with only a small number of patients needing to be referred to a designated Emergency Eyecare Treatment Centre to be seen in person.

As set out in PCA(O)2020(10) , the Scottish Government is continuing to provide financial support to community optometry practices during Phase 2, as practice premises resume providing face-to-face emergency and essential eye care to patients as well as continuing to manage as many patients remotely as possible.

The Scottish Government has worked closely with NHS National Procurement and territorial Health Boards during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide appropriate Personal Protective Equipment, including masks and hand sanitiser, to primary care contractor groups who are providing services on behalf of the NHS.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-28954 on 27 May 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 require that places of worship are closed during this emergency period, except for specific purposes as provided by the Regulations.

The Regulations set out that a place of worship may be used for a funeral service during this emergency period. This is subject to a requirement that a distance of 2 metres is maintained between every person on the premises during a funeral service (except between two members of the same household, or a carer and the person is being assisted by a carer). Wider guidance on funeral services at this time also requests that numbers attending a funeral service in person are kept to the minimum number of people possible.

We issued a letter on 20 March to all faith communities advising that congregational acts of worship should be suspended, as a result of the risk of COVID-19 transmission and infection at that time. In response to this, wider public health advice and a strong commitment to keep their communities as safe as possible from potential infection, the Roman Catholic church, working with the Church of Scotland and Scottish Episcopal Church, closed their places of worship to all services, including funeral services. Similar action has been taken by Scotland's other major faith communities.

We will continue to closely engage with our faith communities as we support them to consider re-opening places of worship for services in the coming period, including how this can be done as safely as possible.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-28954 on 27 May 2020 and S5W-28953 on 29 May 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

I would like to offer my warmest congratulations to the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Scotland as they celebrate their 175th anniversary. I was looking forward to attending their celebrations later this month, which have now unfortunately been cancelled.

I deeply value the significant contributions made by our Christian communities in Scotland, including the Society of St Vincent de Paul, as they work to support many of our most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.

We continue to engage with Scotland’s faith communities, including our Christian communities, in order to understand their concerns and how we can better support them during these unprecedented times.

On 18 March I also announced a £350 million package of support to help communities during this period. A number of funds have been created including the Third Sector Resilience Fund, the Wellbeing Fund, the Food Fund and the Supporting Communities Fund. These funds have been designed to be flexible, to enable organisations – including churches and religious groups – to respond swiftly and according to support those that are most vulnerable, including people impacted economically or through reduced contact with society, including anyone struggling to access food.

We acknowledge the outstanding contribution of Scotland’s faith communities, including our Catholic Communities, and recognise the difficulty in being unable to come together or attend places of worship during this challenging time. However, we know faith communities understand that these restrictions are vital to protect our NHS workers, carers and to save lives.

On Thursday 21 May, the First Minister outlined Scotland's route map through and out of the COVID-19 crisis, which is available on the Scottish Government website. This route map takes an evidence-led approach to easing restrictions and sets out a phased approach towards re-opening places of worship.

Current guidance remains to stay at home and only travel where it is essential to do so. For this reason, at this time places of worship are only able to open for the very limited purposes that are currently permitted including for funerals, to broadcast an act of worship and/ or to provide an essential voluntary service. However, It is anticipated that restrictions around places of worship may begin to ease at phase 2 of the route map, at which time they would be able to open for private prayer (with physical distancing and hygiene safeguards). Places of worship may then open to extended groups at phase 3, also subject to physical distancing and hygiene safeguards, and finally for all ceremonies at phase 4.

We will continue to engage in discussion with our faith communities as we work towards re-opening places of worship for services in line with the phases set out above, including how this can be done as safely as possible.

The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland Covid-19 Working Group has been established independent to Scottish Government, however we are engaging regularly with the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland in order to understand their concerns and how we can better support them during this time.

We welcome the establishment of this working group and look forward to continued engagement as this important work is progressed.

The international standard for an appropriate pandemic response is to double ICU capacity. NHS Scotland has more than trebled its adult ICU capacity, from a base of 173 beds to a surge capacity of 585. These beds will be brought into use as needs dictate, on a daily basis. Given the scale of the current emergency, we have asked Health Boards to go further by preparing to quadruple the base ICU capacity, bringing the total number of adult beds to over 700.

We are working with Health Boards and partnerships to ensure robust plans are in place to strengthen capacity and capability to minimise the impact of COVID-19 across the health system and to ensure we have capacity in equipment, consumables and staffing.