Chamber and committees

Those messages are communicated by Government. Our clinical advisers have been at the forefront of arguing for the rationale for vaccination and the booster programme, and ministers likewise. At the heart of many of the interventions that we have made—whether on public communication or policy interventions such as vaccine certification—the purpose has been to increase the level of vaccination in the population because it is a compelling protection against the virus. I can assure Mr Fraser that those messages have been and will be communicated by ministers.

Some of the endless speculation about these matters sometimes muddies the waters. It has been crystal clear for a long time now that vaccination is critical as an obstacle to circulation and to protect people against the virus. When we go through all the issues about extra bits of data, it almost leaves the public thinking that there is something that they or the Government are missing about the data, whereas it is actually crystal clear: if you get vaccinated, you have more protection against Covid.

Mr Whittle raises legitimate points, which come back to points that I made in my previous answer. We must ensure that the needs of the population are met by the national health service. It is the fundamental founding commitment of the NHS that free treatment be provided at the point of need when individuals experience that need. Covid poses a threat to that, because it takes up capacity in our hospitals. More than 1,500 patients are in hospital with Covid. If Covid was not a problem for us, those 1,500 beds could be used for other purposes.

Therefore, the more we can get on top of Covid and reduce the circulation of the virus, the better, because that creates space for patients, such as the people on whose behalf Mr Whittle argues today and, for that matter, has argued consistently for some considerable time.

The Government has tried to take all the necessary steps to sustain the engagement of critical services for people with conditions that have a life-threatening impact. Along with clinicians and health services, we have worked hard to sustain cancer services. Obviously, for acute presentations of life-threatening conditions, the health service is there to meet people’s needs. That is why we look very carefully at the numbers of people who are in ICU with Covid, because we need space in ICU for people who come in because of heart attacks, brain haemorrhages or whatever it happens to be.

Mr Whittle is right to raise those issues, and I assure him and the public that the Government, in its management of Covid, has the patient group that Mr Whittle raises very much in our minds. We want to ensure that their interests are protected.

Good morning, convener. I am grateful to the committee for the opportunity to discuss a number of matters, including updates to Parliament on Covid-19, and to make some opening remarks before taking questions.

As the First Minister set out on Tuesday, although omicron is continuing to cause extremely high levels of new cases and we must remain careful, there are grounds for cautious optimism that our current additional measures and the efforts that are being made by people across Scotland are having an impact. Last month, our central projection was that new infections could reach 50,000 a day by early January. So far, that has not materialised, and we estimate that the total number of daily infections may be around 30,000. We are also seeing that the numbers of cases confirmed by a polymerase chain reaction test have fallen in all age groups, except the over-85s. That is encouraging, and it gives us some hope that cases might be at or close to the peak. Further, although the number of people in hospital with Covid has continued to increase over the past week, there are signs that the rate of increase may be starting to slow.

In line with our guidance that was set out last week, people without symptoms who test positive with a lateral flow test no longer need to secure a confirmatory PCR test. That means that the current daily numbers are capturing fewer positive cases than before. To address that, Public Health Scotland will, from today, augment its daily reports to include the combined figure for the number of people who have recorded a first positive PCR or lateral flow test. That additional data will allow us to assess the trend in cases more accurately. I encourage members of the public to continue to record their lateral flow results, whether they are positive or negative. That can be done very easily through the United Kingdom Government website, by searching for “report a lateral flow test”.

Although we must remain careful and cautious, the Cabinet agreed on Tuesday to begin lifting the additional protective measures that were introduced before Christmas. We will do so in a phased manner, and further dates will be announced in due course. From Monday 17 January, the attendance limits on large-scale outdoor events will be removed. Certification will remain in place for events and venues that were previously covered by the scheme, and we are asking event organisers to check the certification status of more people attending events. From Monday, for the purposes of certification, the requirement to be fully vaccinated will include having a booster if the second dose was more than four months ago.

For the time being, baseline measures that were in place before the emergence of omicron, such as wearing face coverings in indoor places and working from home where possible, will remain in place. For the immediate period ahead, our advice remains that people should limit their contact with other households and, in particular, not meet indoors with more than three households. We are not asking people to cut all social interaction, but reducing contacts and prioritising who we meet will help to reduce the risk. Our advice remains to take a lateral flow test and report the result when meeting others.

Finally, the First Minister confirmed that the Scottish Government intends to publish a revised strategic framework in the next few weeks. I will update the committee further once that has been published.

I am happy to answer any questions that the committee may have.

Through the course of the pandemic, our strategy has changed in relation to factors such as vaccination uptake and vaccine waning, levels of adherence to Covid-19 rules and guidance, and new variants, all of which can combine to produce different outcomes requiring different responses.

In the long term, we must adapt our thinking on how to manage the virus and become more resilient to it in the future. That will mean seeking ways that are more proportionate, sustainable and less restrictive. The Scottish Government is therefore currently working on, and will publish in the next few weeks, a revised strategic framework that will set out more fully how the process of adaptation can be managed, with a view to building greater resilience.

I recognise unreservedly the importance of the point that Mr Whittle makes and that such services and opportunities must be available to all communities. We are working with our local authority partners as part of the Covid recovery programme board, which I referred to in my earlier answer, to enable such an approach to take place and those services to be available.

However, I will add one caveat to that point, which the First Minister made reference to yesterday. We have to ensure that social care services are available for all our constituents as an absolute priority. In my answer to Ms Ewing, I indicated that we are reviewing, with local resilience partnerships, the effectiveness of service delivery. I am conscious that, because of staff absences due to omicron, there is intense pressure on the availability of social care services. The implications of prioritising social care might well be that some of the services that Mr Whittle would like restarted—for absolutely understandable reasons—might have to be restarted slightly later in order to enable us to prioritise social care. It is important that I am candid with the Parliament about that point. However valuable and important the point that Mr Whittle makes, which I unreservedly accept, we have to ensure that we prioritise the measures that will enable us to deliver social care effectively.

A four-nation approach on that question is essential. Lateral flow tests form a significant part of our approach to managing the pandemic and the approaches of those in the rest of the United Kingdom. The availability of those free tests has been an integral part of the way in which we have managed the pandemic. I would certainly want to see any question about the future steps that are to be taken on LFTs to be decided on a four-nation basis.

That is a very important issue. The response must involve a collaborative approach between national and local Government. The Scottish Government has initiated discussions with our local authority partners to satisfy all of us that the necessary steps have been taken to strengthen the delivery of social care services, recognising the critical dependence on those services of people in local communities.

Last week, along with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, I had a discussion with the leadership of COSLA. At a follow-up session this evening, we will look at the responses of local resilience partnerships to satisfy ourselves that all steps are being taken to strengthen social care to address the priorities that Ms Ewing has highlighted on behalf of her constituents in Cowdenbeath.

The Covid recovery strategy focuses on supporting those who have been most affected during the pandemic and complements a range of sectoral recovery plans.

Our national health service recovery plan, which was published on 25 August 2021, sets out key commitments that will support recovery over the next five years and is backed by over £1 billion in investment. Our education recovery plan, which was published on 5 October, puts improving educational outcomes at the heart of our learning recovery. The plan details key next steps, including measures to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap.

The Scottish Government has worked with a range of public authorities around the country to develop regional economic strategies. In relation to Mr Kidd’s constituency, collaboration with Glasgow City Region, which was launched in December 2021, has ensured alignment around inclusive growth, increasing productivity and net zero ambitions.

The Covid recovery strategy sets out how we will recover from the pandemic by working collaboratively with our partners in local government, business and the third sector.

Priorities for recovery will vary by location. We are committed to working with communities to understand those priorities and to tailor services to support them. I recently chaired the first meeting of the Covid recovery programme board with the president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. The programme board’s members include representatives from the Scottish Government, local government, business and the third sector.

The Cowdenbeath constituency benefits from the Edinburgh and south-east Scotland city deal, which aims to deliver inclusive and sustainable economic growth across the region through investment in housing, innovation, transport, skills and culture.

As I have said to the Parliament before today, in a programme of this scale—we are talking about in excess of 10 million vaccinations—there are bound to be difficulties for some individual cases. The NHS Inform team is working hard to address any discrepancies that emerge. If members of the Parliament are having difficulty resolving those issues on behalf of their constituents, I would be happy to hear from them in order to ensure that they are addressed. I have had a number of representations directly from members of the public, which I have asked to be addressed, and which have been addressed. I would therefore be very happy to address any points that members of the Parliament wish to draw to my attention.