Chamber and committees

As public health is a devolved matter, our approach is tailored to Scotland’s public health needs. As a consequence, our approach may not mirror other parts of the UK.

Ministers and officials continue to engage with employers and industry representatives to reinforce the message that retailers operating in Scotland should follow the spirit of the route map and guidelines published by the Scottish Government.

Police Scotland and Local Authorities have been given the necessary powers to enforce compliance.

The relevant data is provided in the following table.

Only one emergency condition notice (under section 67) has been issued by the Care Inspectorate since 2018. This was to a childminding service in May 2018.

2018 (i) 0, (ii) 1

2019 (i) 0, (ii) 0

2020 (i) 0, (ii) 0 *up to 31 May 2020.

 a) 3 care home services for adults were evaluated as ‘Unsatisfactory’ for the “How good is our staff team?” key question between 1 August 2019 and 9 June 2020.

b) 13 care home services for adults were evaluated as ‘Weak’ for the “How good is our staff team?” key question between 1 August 2019 and 9 June 2020.

All care home services and their staff have been working under extremely challenging circumstances, with outbreaks of Covid-19 being reported in services regardless of their most recent inspection grading.

Inspection is just one element of the rigorous scrutiny and assurance work being carried out. With agreement from the Scottish Government, the Care Inspectorate put enhanced notification systems in place requiring care home providers to make notifications about outbreaks of Covid-19 in their services.

These notifications have helped to inform the national data and alert the Care Inspectorate to issues so that scrutiny, guidance and support can be provided to services, and to direct resources to them from other agencies such as the Health and Social Care Partnerships, SSSC recruitment hub, NHS Public Health and Health Protection Scotland where needed.

The Care Inspectorate has been working closely with Directors of Public Health to jointly assess circumstances within care homes and come to joint decisions on those that need further intervention, so the right support can be provided from a range of specialists including infection prevention and control experts, community nursing, GP services and inspection.

In addition, the Care Inspectorate has worked with partners throughout the emergency period, including Health Protection Scotland, to ensure that up-to-date guidance is in place for care services.

Scottish Government is directly supporting research to develop the scientific techniques which are needed to sample wastewater as a way to track the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The project has been commissioned at the request of Scottish Water through Scotland’s Centre of Expertise on Water (CREW), which is funded by Scottish Government, and is being led by the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute.

The findings from the Roslin project will also feed into a wider cross-UK research study funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and supported by Scottish Government, which aims to further validate and standardise methods for analysing wastewater.

Scottish Government receives weekly scientific advice on monitoring wastewater for SARS-CoV-2, from its Chief Scientific Adviser for Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture. This advice is regularly updated based on academic work from Scottish, UK and international research groups, and on expert advice from scientists within SEPA, Scottish Water and Defra.

The safety and wellbeing of donors is paramount to the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service.

At this time, individuals aged 70 or over are unable to donate due to their increased risk if they become infected with the SARS CoV-2 virus.

This restriction is in place for the protection of donors, and will be reviewed in line with Scottish Government guidance. Donors aged 70 or over will be able to donate blood again when it is considered safe for them to do so.

We are monitoring the situation particularly closely in our African international development partner countries – Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda – including through contact with partners and others on the ground.

We are continuing through this unprecedented time to support our African partner countries through projects funded under both our International Development Fund and our separate Climate Justice Fund. The majority of our budget is programmed spend, for 4-5 years at a time, and we are intent on continuing to support these projects in our partner countries whilst adapting to the challenges that nations are now facing because of COVID-19.

At present, all projects that we fund are carrying out impact assessments in relation to COVID as part of their end of year reporting - and considering at our request, whether their existing project can assist in the Covid response in the partner country concerned.

The Scottish Government is clear that measures should be in place to ensure safe workplaces across a whole range of sectors, including for private hire car drivers. We are actively working with local authorities and Health Protection Scotland to ensure guidance for taxi operators is developed.

We recognise that physical distancing may be a challenge in some vehicles and that operators may consider installing a screen or protective barrier as one of a number of mitigation measures. We must be clear that the decision or not to install such a barrier is one for licensing authorities, operators and the firm or individual operating the vehicle based on their own assessment of risk. Operators should contact the relevant licensing authority to check that they will permit the installation and ensure that the screen and will meet their requirements.

The cost collection exercise was submitted by COSLA on 19 May, however COSLA have confirmed that further iterations of this document will be required due to the pace and nature of changes during the pandemic.

The Scottish Government have already committed over £300 million of additional support for local authorities. To help with local authorities cash flow difficulties we agreed with COSLA to front load our weekly grant payments by £150 million in May, £100 million in June and £50 million in July. We also agreed to keep the cash flow position under review and make further adjustments if necessary.

Payment of the £155 million UK Government consequentials is being made in June alongside the weekly general revenue grant payments. Taken together with the front loading of weekly grant payments, by the end of July local government will have been paid £3.8 billion, £455 million more than originally planned.

To ensure that we deal with the current crisis, and more importantly how we can recover from this as quickly and efficiently as possible it is important that local government and the Scottish Government work together to ensure that we maximise all our available resources. The cost collection exercise co-ordinated by COSLA can inform how we can best allocate additional funding which may be provided by the UK Government and reprioritise existing funding to ensure the people of Scotland receive the services and support that they expect and deserve.

Decisions on local government funding have, and will continue to be considered in partnership with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities.