Chamber and committees

We keep all those things under review. With schools in particular, there is a fine balance to strike, as we want to minimise the risk of children’s education being disrupted. If we had a blanket self-isolation policy for a whole class where one pupil tests positive, we would very quickly see large numbers of pupils and classes isolating. On the other hand, as Ross Greer rightly says, we do not want a situation in which we allow the virus to spread more easily in schools than it would otherwise do.

That is why the risk-based approach that test and protect uses is so important. As the situation develops, we are going to have to keep all that under review to strike the right balance between protection and allowing schools, and the economy and critical services, to operate. None of that is easy—none of it has ever been easy—and it will be tricky in the weeks ahead, but there is a real focus on trying to get those balances as right as possible.

I could hear the enthusiasm for that from members on the Conservative and Labour benches as Christine Grahame was speaking.

Whatever people might think, I do not miss having to do daily updates on Covid, although we do not know what lies ahead. I respect the Parliament: I should come to the Parliament, be accountable to the Parliament and make announcements to the Parliament. It is not for me to decide the days on which the Parliament sits. If the Parliament wants a recall, that is a matter for the Presiding Officer. What I cannot do during a public health emergency is withhold decisions or advice to the public from 5 pm on a Thursday evening until 2 pm on a Tuesday afternoon, as that would literally put lives at risk. It is sometimes important for me to be able to communicate to the public with the chief medical officer and the national clinical director there to answer clinical questions.

I will continue to do everything that I can to get key public messages across. In an emergency such as this, it is incumbent on us all to try to put our differences aside and unite to get those public health messages across.

I am just going to be blunt: I think that that was a deeply irresponsible contribution. It was not only irresponsible because it mischaracterises the position of test and protect; it is an insult to those who are working in test and protect to help schools to stay safe every single day, using a risk-based approach, trying to strike the right balance between protection and maintaining children’s education.

We distributed laptops and connections to tens of thousands of children at an earlier stage in the pandemic, having identified those who are most at risk, and we will continue to do everything that we can to keep schools open, because, as we see today in the attainment figures, that is important for the sake of children’s learning and education.

As I say that, I absolutely accept that schools must also be safe for children and staff, which is why we have given local authorities additional resources to help with ventilation and the education advisory sub-group is looking at all those matters again right now. Members should, by all means, scrutinise the issue, but I ask them not, in the midst of the crisis, to come to the chamber and irresponsibly mischaracterise the situation.

I encourage all MSPs to think about volunteering in a local vaccination centre over the Christmas break if there is a need for volunteers. I have asked all ministers to think about doing that if it would be helpful.

I said last week that we had already increased the paid professional workforce by 300 full-time-equivalent posts. Many people want to volunteer. We will make available details of how people go about registering their interest.

Volunteers are restricted in what they can do, but their activity and contribution can help to free up time. Taking on reception tasks or stewarding people who are turning up for vaccinations frees up the time of clinical staff to do the vaccinations. It is all hands on deck over the next few weeks to get the booster jags into as many arms as we can as fast as we can.

I congratulate any venues—I know that there are many of them—that are going the extra mile to keep the venues and people who go to them, whether performers or spectators, as safe as possible.

As I said, we will put a legal obligation on people who run businesses and provide services to take all practical measures to keep their premises as free from transmission as possible. We know that nobody can eradicate the risk of transmission—it is important to be clear about that—but there are many things that we can do to reduce the risk. I give credit and my appreciation to businesses the length and breadth of the country that seek to do that.

The Deputy First Minister is telling me that the detail that I have given members is the detail that we have at the moment. More money will be made available, but we do not know how much it will be and we do not know whether it is genuinely additional money or whether it will be netted off against expected savings elsewhere. I welcome the money. I welcome any movement on the issue. Members will appreciate that I need to see the detail before I can comment further.

We want to be in a position to take the necessary measures to protect public health without having to plead for financial support in a situation in which, if the UK Government were taking those measures, it would be able to make that financial support available. This is about parity. Whether we are talking about furlough, protecting workers’ wages, or compensating hospitality businesses for the significant knock to their Christmas trade, we need to be in an equal position to compensate for the necessary public health measures that we are taking.

I hope that we have seen progress today and I will happily report back to the Parliament when we have more detail.

As I said last week and repeated today, we have already increased the numbers: we have added 300 full-time-equivalent posts. Health boards are also training new vaccinators and we are recruiting extra volunteers. All of us have to do it.

My appreciation of those who are doing the vaccinations knows no bounds. When I went for my booster a week or so ago, I had a good conversation with the lead nurse about the pressures that they are under and the heroic work that they are doing. We often talk glibly about the contribution that NHS workers make to all our lives but, right now, everybody who is helping with the vaccination effort is literally saving lives and helping the country to get through the most difficult period. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude, but the Government owes them the support that they need. That is what we are focused on providing as we ask them to do even more over the next few weeks.

We are aware of the situation at Hairmyres through the daily contact that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and/or officials have with health boards. NHS Lanarkshire is under significant and sustained pressure, but it has confirmed that it is deploying staff from other areas to ensure that services can deliver key and effective patient care.

We will continue to work closely with all boards, including NHS Lanarkshire, to review their contingency plans and assist in any way possible—for instance, through mutual and military aid where appropriate—and to ensure that appropriate use is made of the exemption system to allow critical workers to return to work on the basis of certain precautions.

I will take that last point first, as it is probably the easiest one to deal with, as anyone who had been paying attention to the situation over the past few months would have known. We had—

We had an exemption scheme in place, so the arrangements for the parts of the economy that can apply to the scheme—the arrangements for applying and who people apply to—are the same as before. We will ensure that that information is refreshed.

I will take the other points as fully but as quickly as I can. Our vaccination programme is currently the fastest in the UK. We have designed it carefully so that the right facilities are available in different areas. Mass vaccination centres are not appropriate in every area. They often result in very high “Did not attend” rates, which means that appointments are lost to the system daily. We therefore flex the system to ensure that it is appropriate for the characteristics of different areas. A number of health boards already have drop-in clinics.

As we try to accelerate the programme, we are looking again at the additional things that we need to do. It would not be the best use of resources to have mass vaccination clinics in every part of the country, but, in some areas—perhaps here in Edinburgh and in Glasgow, for example—such clinics would add helpful capacity to what is already there. We will continue to do that in the best way possible.

I say this in no way to strike a note of complacency—complacent is the last thing that we are—but what we have been doing so far in the vaccination programme has resulted in the fastest progress of any of the UK nations. That does not mean that that will continue to be the case—we will have to work at it—but I hope that that gives some degree of confidence that the right judgments are being taken in how we proceed with the programme. The programme is more important than ever and, as I said in my statement, it is absolutely the top priority for the Government in the days and weeks ahead.

On the issue of money, I do not think that the UK Government’s announcement had been made before I came to the chamber, so I did not have the information, but I have just been passed a note saying that the UK Government has announced that additional funding will be made available to devolved Administrations. I do not have any of the detail yet, but I absolutely welcome that. That is very good progress, as we have been pushing for that move for the past number of days.

We have gone out of our way—rightly so—to find as much additional resource in our budgets as we can. On television last night, I noticed a Tory spokesperson calling for a fund of £10 million; today, we have announced £100 million for businesses. We will also look at the impact of the UK funding when we have the detail of it.

On the isolation policy, the current clinical advice is due to the faster transmissibility of the variant. Releasing people within a household from isolation when they test negative is not as safe as it could be, because a person testing negative one day does not mean that they will test negative the next day. That is the basis of the advice, but we are keeping the situation under review. We have already started looking at when we might migrate away from that advice to something that is more proportionate, because I absolutely understand, and I have set out, the impact that isolation might have on the economy. Therefore, it is about taking appropriate steps now but being flexible when we think it is safe to move towards more proportionate arrangements in the future.