Chamber and committees

I certainly think that there is an argument for that, and I would be more than happy to look at it in detail and consider the Scottish Government’s position.

It is absolutely right to say that we are advising people to work from home wherever they can and—as of this week—strengthening that requirement on businesses. It is not just that it reduces the risk of transmission in workplaces; it also reduces the number of contacts that people have when they travel to work or have lunch while they are there. Working from home helps to take away some of the transmission risk and, given what we are facing right now, that is important.

For those who have to work, it is important that there are appropriate mitigations. Testing is one of the most important mitigations. Yes, there are people who suffer from long Covid and there are long-term implications that might affect their ability to work, but sickness pay, and much of the benefits system, is still reserved to the UK Government. There will be issues that we need to address, and I hope that this Parliament will come together to help us to put those issues very much on the UK Government’s radar screen.

We will do that as far as possible. I understand the frustration, anxiety and distress on the part of businesses that, like all of us, have now had two years of guidance that changes as the pandemic changes.

However, I ask all members to listen to what I said earlier. Cases of this variant of the virus are doubling every two to three days. It is moving faster than anything that we have dealt with before in the course of the pandemic, which is quite a statement, because we have dealt with really difficult situations before. Therefore, speed of response is now more important than it has ever been. I understand that businesses would prefer that we waited for a few days to tell them what we are going to do a week hence so that they could have a week to prepare, but, in a week, this variant of the virus will have doubled three or four times. That is why speed is so important.

I wish that we were not in this situation but we are, and we do not do businesses or anyone else in society any favours if we do not try to act as fast as the virus is replicating.

That is an issue that we have discussed constructively in four-nations meetings over the course of the past week. As members would expect, it is an issue that has been raised by me, the First Minister of Wales and the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. As I said, I have not seen the detail of what the UK Government has announced; I look forward to seeing that later, and I welcome it.

The basic principle here, which should apply across all parts of the UK, is that, if we feel that it is essential to take measures to protect public health, we should not be constrained in doing so because of financial considerations. It should not be the case that money is triggered only if the UK Government decides to take steps; if the Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish Governments, acting within devolved responsibilities, think that that is important, we should be able to trigger that support as well. It is about parity and not asking for one part of the UK to have an advantage over the other. We all pay for this and it is important that we all have equal access to financial support for businesses and individuals whose livelihoods are on the line.

Everything should be kept open and under review, including the reinstatement of furlough over what we hope will not be, but might be, a really challenging period for businesses in the weeks to come.

In principle, the answer to that question would be yes. There will be some caveats regarding which vaccinations they have had in the countries that they have come from. I do not have the detail of that, and therefore do not know whether they can have the boosters here. If Liz Smith would like to write to me or to the health secretary with details, I will be able to give an answer that is particular to the case, rather than the general answer that I can give on the basis of the information that I have now.

There is no blanket policy that says that elderly patients in hospital cannot be vaccinated in the hospital; that is down to a clinical decision and judgment. I will certainly ask the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to see whether we need to issue any more guidance to health boards to ensure that that happens.

We already have mobile vaccination units and there are plenty of clinics operating within more rural areas. What we need to do is expand the capacity in those to make sure that they can do more appointments and, where necessary, we need to open additional facilities. As I have said, we will do all that.

Mass vaccination clinics are not appropriate for every area. That is not the best way to get everybody vaccinated. The appointment system is important, but we will continue to flex the arrangements. I take on board every suggestion that is made, but we should reflect on the fact that, as I keep saying because it is important, what we have been doing up until now has obviously been successful, because our vaccination programme is further ahead—on boosters it is quite a bit further ahead—than England, Wales and Northern Ireland. That suggests that we are getting the balance right.

However, that was then, this is now. We have to significantly increase the pace and therefore we look again across the whole of the provision and decide where and how to add the capacity that is needed.

I think that the answer is yes. More can be done and more needs to be done. We are working with NHS boards, which have dedicated inclusion plans within the vaccination programme that outline how they will offer vaccination to people who often face barriers to uptake. Health boards plan the location of clinics to suit the needs of their populations and they often respond to evidence of lower uptake using available data and local insights. Mobile outreach units are provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service, and some health boards have partnered with local transport providers to use their vehicles to offer transport to appointments for people who might otherwise struggle to get there.

A lot of work is being done to reach undervaccinated communities, and that work will continue, because it is really important that everybody who is eligible to get vaccinated comes forward, and that they get support to do so, if that is needed.

In guidance, we will ask that measures to ensure safety start to be introduced in public places in which people gather. I talked particularly about hospitality and the need to ensure that there is no crowding between tables, because we are asking people to stay in smaller groups if they are in hospitality settings. We will give that message consistently, whether people are in their own home or in a public place.

I have today set out candidly the financial reasons why we cannot do more for some of the public places, although, as I have said, we will look again to see whether we can do any more to support some sensible measures.

I understand the importance of people understanding, which is why I have set out the reasons for what we are asking people to do. This is about all of us trying to reduce our contacts as much as possible. If we all reduce our contacts a bit, and as much as we can, we will reduce the virus’s overall ability to spread. It might be easier for somebody to do that by not going to hospitality venues, or it might be easier for them to do it in their own home—let us do whatever works for us. If we all take the number of our contacts down in the run-up to Christmas, I hope that we will be able to enjoy Christmas and not see a surge of infections after it.

None of this is guaranteed. Omicron is a highly infectious variant of the virus, but doing all that will give us the best possible chance of achieving a smoother path through the winter.

We are providing funding of £30 million to support general practices to continue to provide a high level of care to patients through the winter. The funding will help with the provision of existing services. It will include support for more face-to-face appointments, extra GP sessions, practice nurse time and non-core hours to cover all appointments, for example.

We want face-to-face appointments to resume and to happen as necessary. Many people will continue to prefer online or telephone appointments with their GP, but we need to make sure that we get the balance right. GPs have been working extremely hard throughout the pandemic to provide essential services, and it is right that we support them with funding to ensure that they continue to do so.

I do not know, because I have no idea what money is on the table. When I get out of the chamber and back to my office, perhaps I will have that information, but I might not. If there is more money and it enables us to take other decisions that we think are appropriate, we will have to go through a decision-making process. When we arrive at further decisions, I will come to Parliament. I cannot say at the moment whether that will be tomorrow.

What I would say to all MSPs is that we all have a choice. These are difficult decisions and, when we are dealing with a pandemic, there will always be inconsistencies no matter what we do, because we are all trying to reduce our contacts as much as possible. We can choose to go around telling people about the inconsistencies, or we can explain why things are as they are and encourage people to comply with the advice that we are giving. That is in the overall national interest.