Chamber and committees

In 2015, the Scottish Government and other keys partners participated in Exercise Silver Swan. The aim of the exercise was to assess the preparedness and response of Scotland’s local and national arrangements for an influenza pandemic over a prolonged period. Health and social care were considered as part of this exercise.

The overall exercise report is available on the Scottish Government’s website:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202000026935/ .

The Scottish Government has established strategic and operational groups focussed on enabling health research studies which were paused due to Covid-19 to reopen as quickly and safely as possible. In respect to funding of research staff in NHS Scotland, as well as providing additional service support and generic infrastructure funding to meet the pressure of Covid-19 the Scottish Government is allocating the normal level of funding to support research infrastructure. In addition the Scottish Government has moved to support researchers funded by Chief Scientist Office (CSO) grants and fellowships paused due to Covid-19 by putting in place a system of funded and no-cost extensions and by publishing this advice on the CSO website

https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/grantupdate/

An update on the resumption of driving lessons will be made by the First Minister on 30 July 2020. Any decision on the resumption of driving lessons will be on the basis of an analysis of risk. This will include the prevalence of the virus and the specific circumstances around an activity. There is no specific restriction on informal driving lessons with family and friends, but we would advise that those planning informal lessons consult the latest Scottish Government guidance and ensure they are acting in line with the Scottish Government route map out of lockdown.

On 10 July the Scottish Government announced a £2.2m fund to help grassroots music venues with fixed costs while venues remain closed.

This fund, including its £2.2m value, has been agreed with the Music Venue Trust.

We will continue to discuss with the Music Venue Trust and other stakeholders in the music industry what additional support grassroots music venues might need.

Scottish Ministers have made no requests for inspections of care homes for adults under section 55 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 in 2018, 2019, or 2020.

I meet with the Care Inspectorate regularly to discuss a number of matters including inspection reports and any support and improvement needed as a result of the findings.

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 .

From 29 June 2020 owners of self-catering businesses have been able to travel to their second homes to ensure that it is secure and in good condition. This guidance was published on 22 June, which outlined how Scotland’s route map for easing out of lockdown restrictions applies to second homes. Self-catering accommodation and second homes (without shared facilities and entranceways) were permitted to open on 3 July.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-tourism-and-hospitality-sector-guidance/pages/operational-guide-and-checklist/#premises

A diagnosis of autism is not recorded on either census or death certificate data, it is therefore not possible to identify the number of people with autism who have died from COVID.

In answer to (b), the Scottish Learning Disability Observatory have begun a study to investigate the number of deaths linked to COVID-19 for people with learning disabilities. This important study requires a complex linkage of National Records of Scotland (NRS) and NHS controlled datasets to enable us to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the learning disabilities population in Scotland. The Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory has submitted applications to undertake this work to the Public Benefit and Privacy Panels and the scrutiny process is underway. NRS and the University of Glasgow have signed a Data Sharing Agreement to enable the work to go ahead. Once all the conditions of the scrutiny process have been met, the data will be linked and analysed.

Our efforts over the past three months have been focussed on limiting the spread of the coronavirus and protecting people from the impacts of COVID-19. We know that healthy lifestyles can, in many instances, be a protective factor against the virus and the severity of the disease. We have therefore maintained focus on promoting healthy lifestyles through on-going initiatives wherever possible. The initiatives which have remained in place include the practicable actions and commitments on prevention and protection which we made in our 2018 delivery plans, actions plans and strategies on smoking, physical activity, diet, and alcohol and drugs. Over and above these on-going initiatives, Public Health Scotland has worked with the third sector partners we fund to promote healthier lifestyles to produce COVID-specific advice and guidance on these topics and more, which has been published on NHS Inform. We and our partners have been signposting people and other service providers to that advice as a means of promoting healthier lifestyles in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the Scottish Government only received a high level summary of the position at the all Scotland level for the cost collection exercise submitted by COSLA on 19 May, we are unable to provide the cost for individual local authorities.