Chamber and committees

Test and protect is operating effectively—it is not cutting corners—and we will not need a wake-up call because we have already taken action to make sure that test and protect can perform at the level that people expect.

The WHO standard is important, which is why I have talked about it. Last week, test and protect did not meet that standard. We will see the latest figures later this week; I hope to see an improvement. We will continue to make sure that we are supporting the system to perform in the way that it needs to perform.

I not an expert on the detail of test and trace in England but, as I understand it—I can be corrected if I am wrong—some of the changes that we have introduced to make contact tracing more effective, for example more use of text messaging, are methods that have been in place and in use in England for a long time under the test and trace system that Annie Wells’s party oversees. Some changes would not be appropriate, but it is important that we do not close our minds to changes that are about making the system more efficient and more productive, so that it gets to more people more quickly.

The vast majority of care homes now offer indoor visits, as the “Open with Care” guidance recommends. Care homes are being supported to adopt the guidance by local oversight teams, which include the Care Inspectorate. In June, a review of progress with implementing the guidance identified areas in which care homes and partners can improve and embed good-quality meaningful contact as the norm. The focus is on care homes improving, maximising and embedding meaningful contact, on local-system support, and on monitoring and strengthening awareness and adoption of “Open with Care”.

From the latest information, we know that 90 per cent of reporting homes support indoor visiting, and that increased numbers are supporting daily visits and multiple visitors. However, we will continue to monitor the situation and to work with the sector to ensure that we get back as much normality as possible in the vital relationships and contact between people in care homes and their families and loved ones.

So far, we have—rightly—made significant financial assistance available to businesses. I think that the total of the business support that we have provided to date is around £3.7 billion, but I will not go through all the different strands of support that are available, because members are aware of them. We will continue to consider what more we can do to help businesses, particularly in the now relatively small sectors of the economy that are still under significant restrictions. The reality is that, in much of the economy, many businesses are—at least in theory—operating almost, if not exactly, normally.

For some businesses, the continuing constraint on their trade will relate to whether people feel confident to use their businesses by going to pubs and restaurants and shopping as normal. That is another reason for the cautious path that we are taking. I could lift all restrictions tomorrow—I will not because doing so would be foolhardy—but that would not recover a business’s custom if people do not feel safe going shopping or doing other things that they would normally do.

We need to get the virus under control and continue the progress of the vaccination programme. We need to build people’s confidence to go back to their normal lives, as well as lift the restrictions to enable them to do so.

My job and that of the Scottish Government is to ensure that people understand and, as far as is possible, comply with the restrictions, laws, advice and guidance that are in place in Scotland. That has been the case since day 1, and we will continue to take that very seriously. I will defend the right of different Governments to introduce rules as they see fit. I will not always agree with the actions of other Governments, but I defend their right to do what they think is right and my right to do likewise. We must manage any potential for confusion that arises, and we will continue to do that.

Across the UK, we are all in a challenging position at the moment. We are really hopeful because of the vaccination programme, but we are challenged, again, because of the delta variant. Scotland has been at the leading edge of that in the past few weeks, having, for the first two waves of the pandemic, been behind and below the UK curve. In this wave, we have been above and ahead of that, principally because of the early seeding of the delta variant in Glasgow. We are starting to see an improvement in that position in Scotland. Ten days ago, of the 10 hotspot local authorities in the UK—to use the shorthand language—five were in Scotland; as of today, I think that only one is in Scotland. That indicates the improving position in Scotland, but that position will continue to improve only if people continue to comply with all the guidance and restrictions that are being set out. Therefore, it is really important that people in Scotland are helped to understand what the restrictions are and that we deal directly with any potential for confusion that arises.

That action is under way. All over-18-year-olds have received an appointment and will be getting access to a first dose of the vaccine in the coming days and by the mid-July target date that we have indicated, which is an acceleration of the original target of the end of July.

We also need to make sure that uptake of the opportunities for vaccination is as high as possible, which is the reason for drop-in clinics, the vaccination buses in Glasgow and Edinburgh and the other efforts that we are exploring to get vaccines to young people as quickly as possible.

As Lorna Slater raised with me in a party leaders’ call yesterday, there are issues with the return to university, because, as Michael Marra rightly says, some 18-year-olds might not have full protection by the time they go.

More significantly, there will be some 17-year-olds who are going to university and, as of now, we are not vaccinating 17-year-olds. We might or might not start to vaccinate them in the future, depending on the JCVI advice. Therefore, we will consider providing guidance to that group in particular to help them feel safe and assured as they start university, even though they might not have the full protection of the vaccine that their older peers have.

Some important issues are involved. We have talked about the work that we are doing to prepare for the start of the school academic term—similarly, we need to properly prepare for the start of the university and college terms. I know that the education secretary will seek to engage more with members on all those issues.

I am sure that Christine Grahame is underestimating the power and pull of the Scottish Government website—or maybe not.

Christine Grahame has made a good suggestion. I am not sure that we do not have such signage already—I have certainly seen signs on the overhead gantries on other motorways that state which level the area is in and ask people to comply with the guidance. We will look at whether there is more scope to have such signs, particularly at critical junctures. At the moment, such a juncture would be one where people come into Scotland from England, but that equally applies to travel between different parts of Scotland when they are in different levels. We will certainly look at that helpful suggestion.

I mentioned earlier that the chief medical officer will soon write to those on the high-risk list to provide more advice about the move to level 0 and what that means for people who have been shielding. However, the main part of my answer is more general. We all have a role to play in making sure that, as we go back to normal, those who are at the highest clinical risk from the virus feel confident to go for medical appointments, as well as to the shops and places that the rest of us want to go. That will mean the rest of us being prepared to comply with some baseline mitigations, such as face coverings, for a bit longer than we might want to, in order to provide that sense of assurance.

We have come through lots of different phases of the pandemic. At points, it has been about collective endeavour, and I think that this is another one of those times. Although, as individuals, we might be really frustrated with certain restrictions, we are doing it not so much for ourselves but for each other. That sense of collective endeavour and solidarity with those who are most clinically vulnerable is needed now, perhaps more than ever.

I will ask the relevant officials what more can be done to ensure that the system operates as smoothly as possible. The paper-based system that is in place provides people with a record of their vaccination status, if they need that for international travel. When I last looked—which was earlier today or yesterday—the average time for providing that information was about three days. Obviously, in some cases, it might be longer, and we will continue to work to reduce that time as much as possible.

As I indicated in response to an earlier question, we are working to put in place a digital Covid status certificate system, which will include not only vaccination information but testing data. It will take time to implement that system, but the work is under way.

I will not repeat everything that I said in response to Alasdair Allan, but that answer is obviously on the record. Through Transport Scotland, we are talking to ferry operators about how we can get a better balance between safety measures and maximising capacity. That is important. As I said, for visitors to our islands, the situation can be frustrating, but for those who live on islands it is much more than frustrating. However, we have to have safety uppermost in our minds. If we did not do that and if we took measures that the crew on our ferries considered would put them at risk, Rhoda Grant and others would rightly raise concerns about that. Those are the difficult and often inescapable consequences of what we are all having to deal with. We are trying to find the best balances that we can.

If Rhoda Grant writes to me or the Minister for Transport on the issue of short-notice capacity, we can get CalMac to give more details about the provisions that are in place. I understand the difficulty, and there is a real focus on trying to alleviate the situation as much as possible, but, obviously, the safety of crew and passengers has to be a key consideration.

I take the opportunity to wish Willie Rennie all the best in his retirement—not from Parliament or public life, obviously, but as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Ten years is a good shift. I am sure that we all wish him well.

I will come to the second question first, if I may. What we have confirmed today is very positive in relation to getting services for adults with disabilities back to much greater normality. As I have set out before, it has not been the case that those services have been compulsorily closed, but there has, because of 2m physical distancing, been practical difficulty for operators in opening services up as normal. The move from 2m to 1m physical distancing indoors should pave the way to much greater normality, which will be welcome and will bring much-needed relief to many people in that category.

On the first question, I should say in passing that when health boards or individual hospitals within health boards announce the pausing of elective non-Covid treatment, we want that to be for as short a time as possible. We do not accept such pausing for a long time; it is kept dynamically under review, because we want to minimise it as much as possible.

There is a great emphasis right now on trying to get the NHS back to normal and on addressing the backlog of non-Covid care. The best way to do that is to keep Covid pressure to a minimum. Again, that comes back to my central point, which is that we must take a cautious path through this. Otherwise, we risk pressure on our NHS setting everything back.

I am grateful to Willie Rennie for raising the self-isolation of close contacts who work in the health service and social care. This answer might also apply to other critical parts of society and the economy. I did not mention the matter specifically in my opening remarks for reasons of time, but I will address it now.

As I said in my statement, we hope, as we go beyond level 0, to move away from the blanket requirement for close contacts of positive cases to self-isolate. For example, somebody who is double vaccinated and gets a negative PCR test will no longer have to self-isolate if they are a close contact. Positive cases will still have to self-isolate, of course.

We are considering whether, perhaps ahead of that, that kind of system could be introduced for some key groups in our workforce. Health and social care staff obviously fall into that category. We are discussing that right now with trade unions, among others, and we will listen carefully to their views. I am very mindful of the fact that when I talk about this—as Willie Rennie rightly has—as something that would help to keep key essential services going, the people who work in those services might hear it differently. They might hear it as us giving less protection to their health and wellbeing, so we need to be as careful and cautious about that as we are about everything else.

We will update Parliament if, in any areas, we move more quickly than the timings that I have set out today. I say in answer to Willie Rennie’s question that that is under active consideration.