Chamber and committees

As I said in my statement, the guidance will be published a week from today, to coincide with the statement that I will give next week. The guidance will look at physical distancing more fundamentally so, as I also said in the statement, it will not be exclusively of interest to the arts and culture sector, although I think that it will be of particular interest to it. I acknowledge how difficult it has been, and continues to be, for arts venues, because they are in one of the sectors that has least certainty about what the future looks like.

We had hoped to have published the review of physical distancing by now but, as people will, I hope, understand, we have been trying to develop understanding of the degree to which the delta variant is more infectious and more transmissible, so it did not seem sensible to publish the review while we were still trying to do that. We will publish the review next week. It might not answer every question with 100 per cent certainty, but like the work that we will publish on what life will look like after level zero, it will give more of a sense of what kind of environment businesses and individuals will be operating in as we—I hope—get back to greater normality.

If memory serves me correctly—no doubt I will be corrected if I am getting this wrong—I think that, when the concerns to which the member referred were raised, some people in the industry went public to say that the concerns were unfounded and were the result of a misreading of the guidance. As I recall, it was the Scottish Beer and Pub Association that did that.

We will engage as we go, to try to make sure that not just the arrangements that we ask people to follow are in line with clinical advice but that they take account of the practicalities within which businesses are operating. In a situation as difficult as this, I do not expect any guidance or set of regulations to please everyone, but we continue to work hard to ensure that we take account of the views that people express.

Before I do that, let me say again that I understand why some people are nervous about the fan zone and others think that it should not go ahead, given that we are still living under restrictions. As I said, we know that people will watch the football and we are trying to provide environments in which that can be done as safely as possible. The fan zone is a highly regulated environment: it is a big, big space, outdoors, with lots of mitigations in place.

So far, behaviour and compliance have been very good. The health secretary visited the fan zone over the weekend. The organiser, Glasgow Life, reports a good atmosphere on site, with a mixed demographic that includes families and children. With all the mitigations in place, including the advice that we are giving people on testing, we are confident that it is low risk, based on public health advice. A review team has been set up, at the health secretary’s initiative, to make sure that we can take account of any emerging evidence that might change our approach as we go through the tournament.

Wherever people go to watch football right now, it is really important that they follow public health advice. That is true in the fan zone, but the fan zone is a big, outdoor space. It is particularly true if people are gathering in other people’s houses or in pubs: people should take care to make sure that all the advice is being followed.

I would hope that everybody would agree that the need for fiscal stimulus to support economic recovery is very clear. There is an absolute requirement on the UK Government not to go back to the Tory austerity that we saw in recent years.

Alongside the finance ministers of Wales and Northern Ireland, our finance secretary is writing to the chancellor setting out the Scottish Government’s commitment to building on the constructive discussions that we had at the recent Covid recovery summit to ensure that as far as possible we work together to build a sustainable recovery. That includes discussion of important matters such as clarity about the job retention scheme and the forthcoming UK spending review.

Given where powers over the economy and finances currently lie, if we are to ensure that Scotland and the whole UK recover well from the pandemic and build a sustainable recovery, we need the chancellor to take the appropriate decisions to support that for all of us.

We take every opportunity, as I have again today, to encourage people to get lateral flow tests. I take every opportunity at regular daily briefings, which the Conservatives were very keen to stop me doing, and all other opportunities to promote all the things that we are asking the public to do. [Interruption.] The Conservatives do not like that, but one minute they are asking me to communicate regularly with people and the next minute they are asking me not to do that. [Interruption.] I will continue to do my very best.

This is a really important point, which is also relevant to the discussions about the fan zone. For lateral flowing testing to be effective, it depends on people doing it voluntarily and responsibly. I think that the pilot events in England will increasingly recognise the limitations of mandatory lateral flow tests. Anyone who has done one knows that, if someone wants to, they can generate a negative text or email simply by opening the test and putting in the barcode—although that will be a tiny minority of people. Effectiveness therefore depends on people doing the tests voluntarily and responsibly, which the vast majority of people are doing. That is why we continue to promote it, and I will continue to promote it and other matters as regularly and as vociferously as I possibly can, notwithstanding the irritation that that causes our Conservative colleagues.

I, along with ministers and clinical advisers, will be happy to engage in that process. We want to get all parts of the economy and society back to as much normality as quickly as possible.

I think that people understand that there is a very significant difference between things happening outdoors and things happening indoors. As was set out previously when we published one of the updates to the route map, there is a process that organisers can go through to get permission for larger attendances at outdoor events. That is effectively the process that has been gone through for some of the activity around the Euros in Glasgow.

Such matters are difficult, and they demand very close consideration, because we have to mitigate as much as possible the risks of transmission, while recognising the realities of some of the things that we are dealing with. However, we will engage in an on-going basis as we try to get everything back to normal as quickly as we can.

I will try to answer all those questions in turn as briefly as possible—if I can read my own handwriting with my glasses on.

I will do my best, as I have done all along, to communicate as clearly and as regularly as I can with the public in what, as we start to ease restrictions more, will become an increasingly complicated environment. As an aside, I would just point out that, at regular intervals during the pandemic, Anas Sarwar’s deputy has tried to stop me communicating directly with the public, so perhaps he should have a word with her as well as with me. The easiest message in the world to communicate is: “Don’t do anything—don’t leave the house.”

As we try to lift restrictions, two things arise, the first of which is the potential for genuine contradictions that we just get wrong. We have to be prepared to fix those as we go, and I give an assurance that we will seek to do that. The second thing that arises is the potential for measures for which there is a rational explanation to appear contradictory. The example of the fan zone in Glasgow has been used. People are going to watch football over the coming period, and the fan zone provides a relatively safer way for some people to do that outdoors, with lots of physical distancing, in a highly regulated environment.

Over the past few days, I have asked the advisory sub-group on education to look again at nursery graduations. Its advice is still to continue with the current position. One of the reasons for that is that we know that, if cases are identified in an educational setting, that can often disrupt the whole setting, with many young people and teachers having to isolate. Of course, many early years establishments run right through the summer. Often, there are rational reasons for apparent contradictions, but that does not make it easier for people to understand them.

I do not have the magic solution to all of this, but I will do my utmost to make sure that our decisions are consistent, that we set them out as clearly as possible and that, if we get things wrong, we fix that as we go.

We will continue to give as much business support as we have the wherewithal to give. We are making representations to the United Kingdom Government on furlough and the provision of further support in other ways, but we will continue to maximise the support that we can give within our own resources.

On vaccination, we are literally going as fast as supplies allow. If we cannot reach milestones on vaccination, that will be only because we do not have the supplies to do that. In response to the previous question, I set out the milestones that we are working to. All over-18s will have had their first dose, or an appointment for their first dose, by the end of next week. We will then bring forward second doses and will go as fast as supplies allow, while planning for extending the vaccination programme into other cohorts.

I will certainly look to publish any protocols. These things are sometimes highly technical, but we will publish what we can to give as much transparency as possible.

Anas Sarwar also asked about learning to live with the virus. I am always a little bit hesitant to use that language because, for some people, the virus has resulted in the loss of loved ones, while others will experience long-term health complications. If those of us who are lucky enough not to have had the virus or not to have had close family members affected by it use language such as, “We just have to learn to live with it,” it can sound as though we are oversimplifying things.

If the link between cases and serious illness continues to weaken and—we hope—to break as we vaccinate more people, we will move to a fundamentally different way of dealing with the virus, which will involve having far fewer restrictions; in fact, I hope that we will have no meaningful restrictions at all. That is what the paper that I referred to on life beyond level 0 is designed to look at. We will publish that paper next week, to coincide with the statement that I will make then.

This is the first opportunity that I have had to welcome Michelle Thomson to the chamber.

I assure her that we are working closely with the UK Government, Glasgow City Council, public health bodies and the UN itself in order that we deliver a safe, successful and—as far as it is possible—in-person COP26 in November. We recognise that there are significant public health challenges, but there is an urgent and overriding need to agree action to tackle climate change.

All possible Covid security measures are being explored. Vaccination and test and protect will be key. At the G7 summit just a few days ago, the UK announced provision of vaccines for COP26 delegates who are otherwise unable to access them, and it has also engaged delegates on Covid plans.

Scottish Government ministers and officials are closely involved in planning for all COP26 Covid measures and all aspects of event delivery. As we get closer to the time of COP26, we will keep Parliament fully updated on arrangements.

I will ask the advisory sub-group what more we can publish to explain the basis of its advice to ministers. We are going by its advice. If I did not do that, Jackie Baillie would no doubt be questioning that, perfectly legitimately.

I do not know whether the tone of Jackie Baillie’s question was intended to suggest that somehow I do not care about any of this; I care deeply about it all. Very few things are more upsetting for parents than missing milestones in their children’s lives; we all understand that. We are trying to get as much as we can back to normal and we will continue to do that, but we have to do it in line with advice—for reasons that everybody understands.

I welcome Sharon Dowey to the chamber.

As I did in my response to earlier questions, I assure young people that the grades that will be given to them by their teachers will not be marked down or up because of their school’s past performance. I am being absolutely clear about that. If a learner has demonstrated that they deserve a certain grade, that is the grade that they will receive.

Teachers and lecturers will let young people know their provisional results by 25 June. As I said, a quality assurance process is under way. I have explained how that will work. It is important to emphasise again that the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Education Scotland are not involved at that stage. Once provisional grades—which will be based on teachers’ judgements and not on algorithms—have been submitted to the SQA, they will not be changed because of the past performance of the school.