Chamber and committees

The current costs are within the forecast costs, I provided to Parliament in October last year and have been budgeted for. The Estimated costs (of £28 million covering both the Settlement Agreement and costs associated with the delay) are being managed centrally by the Scottish Government and will have no adverse impact for NHS Lothian services.

The reopening of indoor sport and leisure facilities such as swimming pools and gyms is 31 August with physical distancing and enhanced hygiene measures in place. The Scottish Government have produced new guidance for the opening of indoor sport and leisure facilities with physical distancing and hygiene measures. This new guidance, created in collaboration with the sport and leisure sector will provide staff and customers with the confidence that it’s safe to return. To view the guidance please visit the Scottish Government website .

Decisions on what sectors and activities to re-open on our route out of lockdown are guided by the principles set out in our Framework for Decision Making. Proposals are technically assessed using the best available evidence and analysis of their potential benefits and harms to health, the economy, and broader society to minimise overall harm and ensure transmission of the virus continues to be suppressed. This assessment process includes oversight of the assessed health risks in different settings by the Chief Medical Officer and input from the other Chief Clinicians as appropriate.

As well as this advice, we also need to weigh up the competing claims of different sectors of society such as schools reopening and their associated benefits to broader health and well-being, the economy and broader society. As you will be aware, the First Minister is undertaking reviews every three weeks, with the latest review and publication of our route was published on 20 August. This confirmed that the re-opening of gyms would be brought forward to 31 August.

The Scottish Government believes that the reopening of schools had to be the priority, given their critical importance to the life and wellbeing of our children and young people. The reopening was contingent upon there being low community transmission of the virus. However, the virus has not gone away, and the scientific advice is that the more activities that are allowed to operate, the more contact and mixing will occur, and with that comes additional risk. The reopening of schools is a new development, and with each new development the Scottish Government will look at the impact, and monitor progress very closely. That is why the decision was taken to avoid the cumulative impact of restarting extracurricular activities, until such time as the impact of school reopening had been able to be assessed. This is in line with the published guidance on physical distancing in schools produced by the Covid-19 Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children’s Issues which states “ Where incremental changes can be made and the impacts of these monitored, that would be recommended .”

Scottish Government have supported health boards to redesign the way they offer services through the introduction of technology assisted appointments such as NHS Near Me. In some circumstances a face to face assessment will still be required. This is therefore a matter for individual health boards to consider the urgency of the assessment and whether it could be undertaken remotely, balancing against the risk of a face-to-face assessment.

For children, Scottish Governments reopening of schools guidance advises that movement between schools should be kept to a minimum until further notice.

The guidance recognises the importance of holistic support for children and young people and the requirement to meet their needs, and advises that every effort should be made to meet these needs through lower risk methods such as digital or virtual means. It is therefore up to individuals schools to consider the urgency of the assessment and whether it could be undertaken remotely in assessing the risk of a face-to-face assessment.

The average total turnaround time (ie, time taken from taking of swab to reporting of result) in local health boards is just under 23 hours.

For testing carried out by the UK Government, the vast majority of test results are sent automatically within 48 hours, or 72 hours for home tests. We do not hold data on average turnaround times for tests carried out through the UK Government testing programme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-30555 on 30 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 .

An important strand of an effective pandemic response is data to inform decisions at national, local, and sectoral levels as part of a responsive system of community surveillance, and to support public awareness and choice. To deliver this well, we have brought together a partnership of data and analytical expertise from across Local Authorities, NHS Scotland, Scottish Universities, and Scottish Government. The starting point is establishing the data and intelligence needs of organisations. Our approach will adapt existing technologies, work in an open and transparent way that respects privacy whilst enabling data and actionable insights to be shared appropriately.

As such, information is now being shared with local health protection teams in two respects. First, data about people testing positive is shared from lab systems to Health Boards as soon as it becomes available. This allows people to plan appropriate responses. To add to this, daily information on early warning indicators is shared at an “intermediate zone geography” which typically covers just over 4,000 people. This is currently shared with Health Boards and other public bodies involved in health protection to enable them to combine this with other local intelligence to spot problems as early as possible.

In addition, it is important to make local area data available to the public. Death figures by Intermediate zones were published by NRS on 15th July https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/covid-deaths-extra-tables-week-28.xlsx . The Scottish Government is working with Public Health Scotland to provide a range of early warning indicators at this intermediate zones that would be updated at least weekly. This is likely to include calls to NHS24 for respiratory conditions, and confirmed Covid cases, and potentially some other measures. We are exploring the associated privacy issues and hoping to publish this over the coming weeks.

We are currently preparing guidance in consultation with sport scotland, Community Leisure Scotland, the Scottish Leisure Networking Group, Local Authorities, Leisure Trusts, Hospitality Sector, Trade Unions, Scottish Governing Bodies of sport and other partners in the sporting system.

This will ensure we understand the needs of facility operators in the sector and consider how facilities and processes may be adapted to allow physical distancing and improved hygiene measures.

Indoor sports facilities will open safely, with the confidence of users and providers, in the near future as soon as it is safe to do so but, as stated in the route map, no earlier than 31 July.

The First Minister has confirmed at the next review of restrictions will take place on the 30 July. Some restrictions and public health measures will remain in place throughout Phase 3 to help to keep us safe, protect others and save lives.

The Scottish Government has taken action throughout the pandemic to ensure that people are protected and that appropriate steps are taken to suppress the spread of the virus. Enclosed spaces present challenges and we have published guidance that has taken account of Public Health Advice on the need for communal cleaning. The guidance is available on our website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-physical-distancing-and-hygiene-advice-for-multi-storeys-and-high-density-flats/

The guidance makes it clear that regular cleaning should continue to be provided during the pandemic in line with Public Health Advice. We expect everyone with responsibility for cleaning communal areas to carry this out and ensure that any staff carrying out cleaning are able to do so safely, with appropriate PPE.

It is important that everyone plays their part in continuing to suppress the spread of the virus. Where a tenant has concerns about conditions of their tenement close then they should approach their landlord in the first instance.