Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government published a description of how the Covid-19 R number is calculated on 21st May. This is available via the link. https://www.gov.scot/publications/
covid-19-modelling-epidemic-scotland/ .

The model uses data and provides an R value for Scotland in its entirety. The contribution of care homes, hospitals and the community at large to the overall value, and the links between them, are not well understood. Scottish Government analysts are working with academic groups and modellers from across the UK, through the SPIM and SAGE groups to develop ways to do this, and we await their findings. The Scottish Government is also carefully considering a range of Covid statistics on care homes. This includes data produced daily by Scottish Government on the number of number of care homes notifying cases of COVID-19, and the number of suspected cases of COVID-19 in care homes. This also includes weekly excess deaths produced by National Records of Scotland to help understand where people have died from Covid-19.

Health Protection Scotland are conducting surveillance swab testing in the community for individuals with mild to moderate symptoms. Testing commenced on 27 April and results are available a week later by HPS report for internal planning and surveillance purposes. Details of this can be found at: https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/a-to-z-of-topics/enhanced-
surveillance-of-coronavirus-covid-19/ .

A pilot project for the current community surveillance ran for two weeks (weeks beginning 13 th April and 20 th April) before the surveillance testing was rolled out across Scotland from 27 th April. This pilot ran in NHS Fife only in order to ensure the process was efficient prior to wider use.

The investment expectations are set out in the Decision Papers “Asset Replacement” and “Prospects for Prices”, available on the Water Industry Commission for Scotland’s website. As noted in the answer to S5W-30017 on 2 July 2020, Scottish Water had estimated investment of £730 million in 2020-21.

The Commission estimates that £1 billion - £1.1 billion annual investment will be required by 2040. The actual investment level at 2027 will depend on price profile, growth assumption, growth starting point, borrowing available and Scottish Water’s cash balance at the start of the 2021-2022 financial year. It is expected that further clarity on the investment profile will be provided when the Commission publishes its draft determination.

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 refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29039 on 2 July 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 COVID-19 data and trend charts for Scotland are published daily and provide a range of information, including the number of care homes notifying cases of COVID-19 and the number of suspected cases of COVID-19 in care homes. The data also includes the daily number of people in hospital with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 but does not include details on how many of these are care home residents or staff. The cumulative number of people tested and the number of positive and negative tests is also provided.

Weekly data on COVID-19 in adult care homes in Scotland is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-additional-data
-about-adult-care-homes-in-scotland/ .

You can find figures updated every day at 2pm (including care home data) here: Coronavirus (COVID-19): Daily data for Scotland .

The R number is calculated for Scotland and we publish it on a weekly basis. The R number is not calculated for smaller areas such as Scottish local authorities as the ranges around the estimates would be very large and it would not allow us to understand the differences between different areas of Scotland. We are looking at other means of monitoring and forecasting the levels of COVID-19 infection in local authority areas.

We are building surveillance systems to ensure that, not only at a national level but at a local level, we can monitor and, where possible, predict what happens with the virus in the weeks and months to come.

We have a range of powers under the Coronavirus Act 2020 that would allow us to take appropriate and proportionate actions as might be necessary.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-30032 on 2 July 2020. Key papers and minutes are available on the Commission’s website at https://www.watercommission.co.uk/view_Publications_Main.aspx .

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 Scottish Government was sent a copy of the decision paper prior to publication and noted its contents.

In 2018 the Scottish Government participated in the OECD pilot project to identify best practice for each of the OECD Water Governance Principles, and to develop water governance indicators to assess progress. The results of this project were published in “Implementing the OECD Principles on Water Governance: Indicator Framework and Evolving Practices”. The Pilot project highlighted the Scottish framework as an exemplar of good practice and identified a small number of areas of improvement to further strengthen Scotland’s water governance.

There are 6 drive-through testing centres in Scotland as part of the UK Government’s Expanded Testing Programme. These are located at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen airports, the Highlands and Islands University campus’ in Inverness and Perth, and Prestwick Airport.

The UK Government's Expanded Testing Programme also provides Mobile Testing Units. Mobile testing units (MTU) were deployed for the first time in Scotland on 30 April. On Wednesday 10 June, 9 Mobile Testing Units were operational at: Dornoch, Galashiels, Fort William, Stirling, Motherwell, Prestwick, Greenock, Dundee & Glenrothes.

Mobile Testing Units are deployed on a rolling programme around the country, and decisions on deployment are made in conjunction with Local Resilience Partnership and Regional Resilience Partnership. These decisions are informed by local factors of public health, population, rurality, access to testing and need for specific responses to outbreaks. We are working with local authorities and health boards to ensure Mobile Testing Unit deployment is publicised locally.

We are continuing to work with partners to increase testing pathways in the community to widen availability to testing for people going forward in addition to the testing which takes place within care homes and our NHS hospitals.