Chamber and committees

Before I address the question, I will make a point about international travel. We often talk about it in the context of holidays, and people who have family overseas—and for whom international travel is about family connection—often feel frustrated at that. I recognise that, for many people, the restrictions on international travel are keeping them away from their loved ones, which is why we want to get back to normal there, as in every other aspect of life, as quickly as possible.

For non-essential travel such as holidays, my advice to people continues to be that they should not go overseas if they can avoid doing so. Right now, it is safer for us not to go overseas, as it helps to mitigate against the importation of the virus. If someone is in the position of being able to go on a holiday this year, I ask that they support the local tourism industry. We discuss such matters regularly—I have reasonably regular discussions with the Scottish Tourism Alliance about how we can better support the tourism industry in the immediate term, and also as it recovers in the medium to long term.

A message that we could all helpfully convey to our constituents is that they should support their local tourism industry, the Scottish tourism industry and local businesses generally as much as they are able to.

If I may say so, that is just complete nonsense. By all means, people should rigorously hold me and my Government to account—that is absolutely essential—but I urge everybody to avoid saying that Edinburgh is the new Glasgow, or that Edinburgh is not as deserving of measures as Glasgow. Such attempts to divide and set people against one another, or to suggest that we are not taking the pandemic seriously in every part of the country, do not help anybody.

The local director of public health in Lothian, along with the local incident management team, will be working to decide what measures are appropriate, based on the nature of the outbreak across Lothian. If they consider it necessary and essential, surge testing will be a part of that, as well as door-to-door testing and walk-in vaccination clinics. It might surprise people to hear that I do not mandate to local public health directors exactly what they do in local outbreaks, because it would be wrong for me to do so. They are the ones who understand the nature of outbreaks and, from the range of tools that they have available, what works best in local circumstances.

I ask all members to engage, as I am sure that they already do, with their local health board and director of public health, in order to understand the local measures that are being put in place, which will be bespoke to the particular challenges that are being faced. I ask that we all avoid suggesting that one part of the country is being done down in favour of another part of the country. That is not true. We are all in this together, and we are trying to get through it together.

I know how important the matter is and I know how frustrating delays are. There is obviously an economic imperative to have people able sit driving tests, but they are also one of the rites of passage for young people that have been disrupted over the past year or more. Obviously, it is really important for them that we get things back on track.

Unfortunately, all these issues are complex and rarely straightforward. In certain environments, 2m physical distancing remains an important mitigation. However, the issue is important and we will continue to look at the situation to see how quickly we can increase capacity and get the backlogs down. I absolutely understand the importance of the issue and I will make sure that the transport minister keeps members updated.

Self-sampling has significant potential to increase take-up of screening and to make it easier for people—there are many—who find the current process difficult. That said, the United Kingdom National Screening Committee is gathering evidence on the matter, but has not yet recommended that self-sampling be incorporated into the national cervical screening programme.

We have convened a working group to explore the feasibility and requirements of different self-sampling models, which will contribute to the evidence base. The group brings together clinical and public health expertise, including representatives from the Dumfries and Galloway study. Introducing self-sampling to the national cervical screening programme would be a not insignificant undertaking, but we are working hard to ensure that Scotland is well placed to implement the National Screening Committee’s recommendations when we have them.

The young persons guarantee is obviously central to those efforts and will be increasingly important as we go through the next few years and, we hope, through recovery from Covid. We will also continue to work closely with local authorities and schools to minimise any on-going disruption to children’s education and their ability to go from school to further and higher education or into training and employment.

One of the key things that we are doing right now is working to get people vaccinated, including the younger groups in the population, and that is going extremely well. As we come out of the pandemic, there is no doubt that, as part of the overall recovery, we need to prioritise recovery for young people. The previous question related to driving tests, which are only one aspect, but an important aspect of this. Young people have borne so much of the brunt of what we have all gone through over the past year.

If Stephen Kerr took a bit more time to understand the situation, he would know that what he just said was not really accurate at all. The next review of all levels of protection happens on 21 June. Of course, there may be circumstances that require us to move more quickly than that, but I hope not. On 21 June, I will set out for every area of the country what we expect the level of protection to be from 28 June. That will cover those in level 1, which we hope will be able to go to level 0, and those in level 2, which we hope will go to level 1, but we need to assess the data nearer the time. That is the three-weekly review cycle that we have committed to, and that is what we will continue.

I wish that I could wave a magic wand and get every area of the country not just into level 0 but beyond level 0, but we have to do this carefully and in a way that protects our process and, of course, allows us to get as many people as possible vaccinated.

I would like to have the opportunity to look into the matter before trying to answer the question in detail. I will come back to Brian Whittle as quickly as possible. When there are travel restrictions in place, there are exemptions for essential travel. I will need to check whether such travel by athletes would fall into the category of permissible travel. If that is not the case, I am happy to ask for the issue to be looked at, to ensure that the athletes can do what is required to compete, as everybody would want them to do.

Concession stands will not be in operation for the Euro 2020 matches at Hampden because of all the mitigations that have had to be put in place. That is to ensure that physical distancing is possible on concourses when people move to and from their seats on entry and exit, and when they go to the toilet.

However, spectators will be able to bring food with them into the stadium. Discussions are on-going between the Scottish Football Association and UEFA to reach agreement on what will be in place with regard to drinks. UEFA will confirm the situation with all ticket holders, and I will make sure that Stuart McMillan is updated when that has happened.

I am not sure whether it was Graham Simpson who asked that question a couple of weeks ago, but my answer today is the same. We continue to look at the matter, but we want to make sure that we have assurance—and can give assurance—on the quality of the testing that is in place.

Why is there a difference? In many respects, the UK Government—this is entirely up to it—chooses to outsource more outside the NHS than we in Scotland have decided we will do. We keep such things under review, but making sure that we have assurances around quality is really important. I hope that most people understand and accept that.

I understand the desire for that; I share the desire for it. I would simply ask Willie Rennie to accept, as I have done on previous occasions, that there is no minister in the Government who is somehow standing in the way of that for any reason other than that the clinical position is still that we need to be cautious and take precautions. Yes, we will get to a position of issuing new and more permissive guidance as quickly as possible. I have said very clearly—and I repeat it today—that we need to prioritise things like that.

Nobody is trying to hold up moves like that for any reason other than trying to keep the most vulnerable in our society as safe as possible. However, I will make sure that the health ministers look again at the issue, given that it has been raised again, to see whether it is possible to speed up that process—to go more quickly and to have more distinction between the different levels of protection that apply.