Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-28605 on 18 May 2020. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Part A - Antibody

Antibody testing will tell us if a person has had the infection and enable us to learn more about the virus and how it is spreading through the population in Scotland. Evidence is evolving on whether the presence of antibodies indicates that someone is immune, and if so, for how long that immunity would persist.

Health Protection Scotland commenced antibody testing, for surveillance purposes, on 6 May. A reliable antibody test that can be deployed on a large scale is not yet available, although Health Protection Scotland is working with a number of companies on this. The aim would be to start to introduce diagnostic antibody testing as soon as possible after that.

Part B Vaccines

The Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office continues to have regular contact with equivalents in the other UK health departments as part of UK wide coordination of COVID-19-related research, and has been updated as part of this contact on the establishment of a Vaccines Taskforce to support UK efforts to rapidly develop a coronavirus vaccine. The CSO funded NHS research infrastructure is available to support vaccine studies when they are at the appropriate stage of development.

The SSSC, with the consent of Scottish Government, has already taken action to address the payment of registration fees for social care workers during this COVID-19 outbreak. This includes:

• New and returning care workers will not immediately have to pay the registration fee if joining the workforce. SSSC will not require registration or fee payment until 12 months passes. Previously fees had to be paid within 6 months so we have extended this period during the current pandemic.
• SSSC will not remove workers from the Register who are unable to pay the annual fee on time but will contact them at a later date if the fee remains due.
• A temporary register for Social Workers has also been established to encourage qualified students or those returning from a career break to back into permanent roles. For these social workers SSSC will waive fees, and will only request them when the emergency situation is over and that person remains employed as a social worker.

Details can be found on the SSSC’s website www.sssc.uk.com

Information on hospital discharges is collected by Public Health Scotland. The specific information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government published its strategy for a "test, trace, isolate, support" approach in Scotland on 4 May. The publication can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-test-trace-isolate-support/

This data is not available. Public Health Scotland started receiving data according to type of worker from 16 April 2020 and the data collection does not separate staff from their family members.

The COVID-19 data and trend charts for Scotland are published daily and provide a range of information on the number of people tested for COVID-19 across Scotland to date, with a breakdown for negative and positive results.

The link to the daily data update is:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/trends-in-number-of-people-in-hospital-with-confirmed-or-suspected-covid-19/

Businesses that have had to close have quite rightly looked to their insurance provider for help and it is disappointing to hear that many businesses continue to be unsuccessful in making a claim. Scottish Ministers are engaging regularly with the industry and have made clear our expectation that they do everything they reasonably can to support businesses and citizens at this difficult time.

On 1 May, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced it intends to seek legal clarity on business interruption insurance to resolve doubt for businesses who are facing uncertainty on their claims. The FCA will bring to court key relevant cases, carefully chosen to offer a representative sample of the most frequently used policy wordings that are giving rise to uncertainty. This may include clauses of the kind you refer to. Ministers will be following the outcome of these proceedings closely.

Local Authorities are responsible for recycling centres and need to consider several factors before reopening them. These include the ability to operate sites safely, ensuring physical distancing is maintained and discouraging the public from making unnecessary journeys.

As the First Minister indicated on 10 May, we are looking at the possibility of reopening waste and recycling centres. We are working closely with Cosla and local authorities on this issue and will provide a further update on those discussions in the near future.

The Scottish Government is concerned by recent reports (from England and the US) suggesting that minority ethnic communities are disproportionately affected by Covid-19.

Collection of ethnicity data is undertaken on a voluntary basis in Scotland in order to provide useful information for medical and other research purposes. Ethnicity questions are included in the death registration process, with informants to a death provided with a short statement as to their purpose, and noting that these questions, unlike the rest of the death registration process, are not statutory, and can be passed over if the informant does not wish to answer them.

More information on the quality of the data on ethnicity can be found on the NRS website via the following link:

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths/deaths-background-information/ethnicity-of-the-deceased-person

Analytical partners across the Scottish Government, NRS, Public Health Scotland and the NHS are working together to consider how we can better understand the impact of COVID-19 on those from all minority ethnic communities including from Black and Asian backgrounds. This data will be published when work is completed.

Public Health Scotland include deprivation analysis by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) in their new weekly COVID-19 statistical reports. The first of these reports was published on Wednesday 6 th May.

https://publichealthscotland.scot/our-areas-of-work/sharing-our-data-and-intelligence/coronavirus-covid-19-data/ .

National Records of Scotland (NRS) will publish a report which examines COVID-19 deaths by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) in mid-May.