Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has a webpage which provides comprehensive advice on Coronavirus in Scotland, including signposting to health, safety and UK Government advice which includes further information on the furlough scheme. The website was updated on 29 May to include a section specifically for workers and employers to direct them to existing Scottish Government guidance, to ensure they are aware of the current guidance regarding returning to work. The web page can be accessed at https://www.gov.scot/coronavirus-covid-19/ .

In addition to our new webpage, we are supporting Healthy Working Lives (part of Public Health Scotland) to further develop their web based support for employers and employees seeking advice relating to COVID-19. Further information can be found at https://covid19.healthyworkinglives.scot/ . We are also supporting Scottish Hazards to allow them to continue to provide a telephone advice line for workers seeking workplace health and safety advice. Scottish Hazards can be contacted on 0800 0015 022.

We have a good understanding of the transmission of COVID-19 but this continues to evolve as new evidence becomes available.

Transmission is through two main routes: droplet and contact. Airborne transmission may also occur in certain circumstances, for example during aerosol generating procedures (AGPs).

The latest evidence suggests surface contacts are likely to be the most significant transmission route.

It also suggests that the virus lasts on surfaces at a level that may pose risk of transmission for 48 hours, while it is unlikely to exist within the air after 30 minutes

Hence environmental decontamination (cleaning and disinfection) is an important mitigating action to contain the spread of COVID-19. If you are cleaning after a known or suspected case of COVID-19 then refer to the guidance on cleaning in non-healthcare settings .

However, decontamination needs to be done alongside other measures such as physical distancing, frequent hand washing, wearing face coverings in enclosed spaces and on public transport, and cough etiquette; as well as, where it is deemed appropriate, wearing PPE.

Risk of deductive disclosure leading to a breach of patient confidentiality means that data about the number of people at the hotel or nearby who tested at that time cannot be released. However, any case that tested positive, whether related to this event or not, has always been included in our daily COVID-19 updates.

An independent, multi-disciplinary, multi-agency group Incident Management Team (IMT) with responsibility for investigating and managing the Nike conference incident was established. The IMT provides a framework, response and resources to enable the NHS board and other statutory agencies to fulfil their remits.

Under this framework, the Health Protection Teams would be using the Health Protection Scotland (HPS) guidance in place at the time, which recommended testing for symptomatic contacts.

The guidance published on the HPS website was developed by experts within HPS and based on advice used across the UK.

Scottish Government was first made aware on 3 March 2020 that there had been a case testing positive for COVID-19, relating to the Nike Conference held in Edinburgh on 27 February. This case was included in the daily total case figures reported to the public on 4 March.

An independent, multi-disciplinary, multi-agency group Incident Management Team (IMT) with responsibility for investigating and managing the Nike conference incident was established. The IMT provides a framework, response and resources to enable the NHS board and other statutory agencies to fulfil their remitsThe IMT can, if it judges that there is a beneficial public health rationale to do so, make the existence of an incidence public knowledge.Each incident is judged individually. On the Nike Conference incident, as all contacts had been identified and contacted the risk to the public was deemed by the IMT to be low.

The Scottish Government is working with partners to ensure that all health and social care workers, including doctors, have the support they need when they need it, including access to specialist psychological services.

Staffing matters are the responsibility of individual colleges and, whilst it is for the institutions themselves to make decisions on future staffing levels, I urge them to be sensitive to such negotiations during the coronavirus pandemic. Decisions on staffing may be based on the financial health of the institution or on the need to implement changes to the delivery of teaching and learning to reflect the changing needs of the local economy and industry skills demands.

We are aware that some colleges have continued to pursue voluntary severance schemes at this point in time and the Scottish Funding Council continues to work closely with the sector to ensure any actions taken are compliant with the Scottish Public Finance Manual and the Scottish Funding Council's Financial Memorandum. However, I am also conscious of the fact that several colleges have paused their voluntary severance scheme and I welcome this development.

Colleges take the mental health of their staff very seriously. Throughout the change process, West Lothian College have encouraged affected staff to take advantage of a wide range of mental health and wellbeing support available to them through the college.

These are exceptional times and we expect employers, unions and workers to agree appropriate arrangements that ensure that workers are treated fairly, in line with Fair Work principles.

This information is available in the Scottish Health Service Costs (often referred to as the 'Costs Book'), published annually by Public Health Scotland (previously Information Services Division). Report R025 provides a cost per inpatient week for the 2018-19 total hospital running costs of each NHS Board and the R300 reports provide a breakdown for the main speciality groupings. This information is not held centrally for Integration Joint Board Areas.

We report the number of all cases for people testing positive for COVID-19 through our daily briefings.

In any outbreak, an independent, multi-disciplinary, multi-agency group Incident Management Team (IMT) is established. The IMT provides a framework, response and resources to enable the NHS board and other statutory agencies to fulfil their remits. The IMT considers what information can be released to maintain patient confidentiality while also protecting public health.

The Scottish Government was not advised of the closure of Gartnavel testing centre. However, on inquiry we understand the situation at the Gartnavel centre is reviewed on a daily basis and it can be stood up quickly if the number of symptomatic health or social care staff requiring tests increases again. The testing staff have been moved into an additional mobile testing team as there are a number of staff without transport unable to attend the drive-thru centres. Symptomatic care home staff are still being tested through the staff testing programme either at the other sites or by the home testing teams.

Neither the Scottish Government, any of its agencies or the NHS in Scotland have not contracted with Amazon to deliver and/or collect Covid-19 tests. We are aware that the UK Government has contracted with Amazon in respect of the delivery of home testing kits as part of the UK Testing Programme.