Chamber and committees

We want to make sure that we have adequate supplies of PPE, as do all Governments. We work hard in the Scottish Government, at times in partnership with the other UK Governments, to ensure that we have supplies and use them to the full, and to ensure that we get the right PPE to the people who need it. That will be a matter of on-going focus for as long as the pandemic is with us. Indeed, it will be the case beyond that, because it is important in normal times, as well.

It is not for me to comment on the procurement decisions of the UK Government, although I know that many of those decisions are under great scrutiny and are being questioned. We will continue to take sensible procurement decisions in order to ensure that we have the right supplies of PPE and other items that the people who work on the front line of our national health service need.

First, trying to ensure that disruption in our schools is kept to a minimum is one of the reasons why we need to be cautious on an on-going basis about the mitigations that are in schools, including face coverings. As I think that Jackie Baillie and her party agree, to lift those would take us, potentially, in the opposite direction. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills will make a statement later this afternoon, confirming our intention that exams will go ahead this year and setting out some further decisions about support for young people in the lead-up to that.

On the £5 million ventilation fund, it is important to say that it is not the case that every space in our schools or early years settings needs such measures. Based on the assessment of the number of spaces that may need some additional mitigation, the funding that has been made available would be adequate for the purchase of air cleaning or filtration units; it would also cover, for example, the need for small mechanical ventilation or extractor fan units; and it would allow for repairs, for example, to doors or windows, to improve airflow. That funding covers the need that has been assessed, but we will keep it under review with local councils as we continue to take steps to ensure that we can live with Covid much more sustainably and much less restrictively in the months ahead.

The remaining funding that is to be allocated will be allocated and distributed as soon as possible. We are, rightly, taking time to consult to ensure that the remainder of the support gets to the sectors in which it is needed most—perhaps to sectors that, without consultation, would not get the support and attention that they merit.

Liz Smith has previously raised the outdoor education sector in the chamber. The Government has provided support. Although I will not pre-empt decisions that are yet to be taken, we can see from our previous actions that the needs of the sector are very important to us, because they are important to children across the country. We will continue to take that into account as we reach final decisions.

We continue to follow Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation advice. I take this opportunity to thank the JCVI for all the advice that it has given us so far. Advice has evolved in line with evolving understanding of the virus and the JCVI’s consideration of how vaccination can help to reduce, in particular, serious illness and hospitalisation.

We will continue to be guided by the JCVI in the future, but I hope very much that we will get from it recommendations that will allow us to extend even further the scope and coverage of the vaccination programme, including to more people in the five-to-11 age group.

The most up-to-date polling, which is from December, showed that the vast majority of adults in Scotland—more than 80 per cent—believe that wearing a face covering is very or fairly important, so support for the approach is already high.

It is important that we continue to emphasise the message. The “Living safely this winter” campaign is running right now; we will amend it as circumstances change. We will continue to ensure that there are strong and appropriate public health messages through mainstream media, including television and radio, and across social media. For as long as we are asking the public to do certain things and to change their behaviour in certain ways, it is important that there is good communication in order to make it clear to people what they are being asked to do. We will seek to ensure that in all our marketing and public campaigns.

I recognise that there is a heightened risk to people who are in indoor settings with a large number of people, particularly where some of those people are likely to be unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated.

That does not apply only to schools, although clearly it applies to schools, which are the subject of the question. That risk is one of the reasons why we are deliberately taking a very cautious approach to easing mitigations in schools. The guidance that is being updated today eases mitigations to do with bubbles and groupings within schools, and it eases the requirements around visitors to schools but—as I said—it also asks for the current requirements on face coverings to be continued. That is part of the cautious and sensible approach to ensure that, in settings where the risks are perhaps higher, for the reasons that have been set out, we are doing everything that we can to protect people. In addition, of course, the steps on ventilation are important.

That is an important point. I can give the assurances that we will give at every stage of the progress of the legislation through Parliament. An important assurance to give right now is that the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill is not emergency legislation; it is legislation that will be subject to the full normal and proper scrutiny of Parliament.

We have removed and will remove any of the emergency measures that rightly should be temporary and are not needed anymore. However, it is also the case that some of the measures that were introduced on a temporary basis have proved to be worth while for the longer term and, as I said earlier, retaining them will bring public health protections in legislation more into line with those that have been in place in England and Wales for some time. Earlier, I gave an example of the greater protection that the legislation will give to private sector tenants. It will also enable us to continue to allow for the remote registration of deaths and births, for example. Those are the kind of commonsense measures that we are taking—

It has been very challenging for dentists, as it has been for others across the health service, to keep seeing patients during the pandemic, even during periods of recovery. We are assisting dentists in getting back to normal as quickly as possible. From this month, we are providing dentists with an additional £20 million of funding to help them to see more patients, and the 2022-23 budget delivers a 9 per cent increase in the budget for NHS dentistry. That is record investment.

We are moving forward with NHS dentistry recovery, and we aim to return to much more normal levels of activity as soon as the virus allows us to do so. We are also discussing with the British Dental Association Scotland how we can continue to support NHS dentistry in the longer term as we continue to secure a sustainable public service.

The guidance on the use of PPE and what PPE is appropriate in what circumstances is carefully considered and is based on the recommendations and advice of experts. I regularly ask my officials about the issue in order to assure myself that it is still as we would expect it to be, given the current state of the pandemic, and I will continue to do that.

I will write to the member, or ask the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to do so, to set out the key components of that guidance. It gives a lot of latitude to NHS workers who feel that they should be using a particular grade of PPE to do so, and, obviously—to go back to an earlier question—it is the responsibility of Government to ensure that we are procuring adequate stocks of appropriate PPE.

I will ask the health secretary to write to the member with a bit more detail on exactly what the guidance says and the steps that we are taking through procurement to ensure that that guidance can be followed.

No, I do not recognise that. Obviously, I will look at what information the Government can publish that is not already published. What I think Alex Cole-Hamilton is referring to, in respect of the education secretary’s comments, is that we have assessed that not all spaces in schools or early years settings require additional measures. In those that do, the measures might include—temporarily, because they are not the recommended long-term solution—air cleaning or filtration units. Longer-term solutions include mechanical ventilation or extractor fans, increasing the space at the bottom of doors and allowing windows to open. That is what the £5 million ventilation fund is for.

As I have said, we will continue to keep the matter under review. Making sure—not just in schools, although that is what we are talking about right now—that the right ventilation measures are in place is going to be a long-term issue, because we know that good ventilation is one of the best mitigations against Covid. The actions that we have taken to date demonstrate how seriously we take that; we will continue to take the matter seriously as we go through the months to come; and we will, of course, continue to report fully to Parliament on that.