Chamber and committees

Sawmills are a key part of the timber supply chain which supports ‘essential businesses’. Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) sectors define those facilities, systems, sites and networks necessary for the functioning of the country and the delivery of the essential services upon which daily life in Scotland depends. Pallets and biomass are identified as essential forestry outputs linked to transport of key goods and energy, both part of Critical National Infrastructure. The 13 designated CNI sectors can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-construction-sector-guidance/

Provided that they can continue to operate in compliance with the latest Scottish Government guidance on social distancing, production is required to meet increased demand for pallets from supermarkets, pharmaceutical companies, chemical companies, packaging companies and logistics providers. The co-products they produce, chips and sawdust, also supply biomass to the energy sector.

Guidance for businesses in Scotland on social distancing, including the closure of all retailers that sell non-essential goods and other non-essential premises due to the COVID-19 outbreak is available at the following:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-business-and-social-distancing-guidance/ .

All children and young people who rely on free school meals will continue to receive them during this period. Free school meals are a vital measure for families, children and young people across the country, and the Scottish Government is very grateful for the rapid work that local authorities have done already to ensure continuing provision.

The Scottish Government firmly believes that local authorities are best placed to design and develop solutions that meet local needs and circumstances as they will be aware of the specific challenges and solutions within their region.

On Thursday 26 March, the Scottish Government issued guidance to all local authority Chief Executives and Directors of Education regarding support to vulnerable children and young people.

The guidance included a specific section on free school meals which recognises that local authorities will continue to adopt different approaches depending on their individual circumstances and in response to local need. This will ensure that local authorities have maximum flexibility in approach in order to meet the needs of all free school meal eligible children and young people.

The Scottish Government has been modelling the impact for Scotland and updating this work as new epidemiological work and assumptions are provided by the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M). This is currently based on a reasonable worst case scenario that 80% of the UK will become infected as some point. Modelling has also been done on the reduction in the reasonable worst case for the social interventions under consideration and live across Scotland. Figures on actual cases are published daily by the Scottish Government.

Our priorities for testing are directing testing capacity to save lives and protect the vulnerable; ensuring that critical staff can return to work as soon as possible; and monitoring and reporting of the spread and prevalence of the virus in the population and the impact of public health measures.

Guidance has been published for the NHS to support use of the testing capacity in laboratories, in so far as it is not needed for essential care, in order to enable health and social care staff to be back at work when that is safe.

NHS territorial boards will put in place appropriate local arrangements for testing of NHS and social care staff who are symptomatic.

We are working hard to increase capacity to use testing to get critical workers in isolation back to work, but we will have to make difficult choices and currently we need to prioritise the health and social care sector.

The UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) provides scientific and technical advice to support government decision makers during emergencies. In response to the Covid-19 outbreak all four of the UK nations are following the scientific advice from SAGE and their evidence is published online at: www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage-coronavirus-covid-19-response .

In addition, Scottish Ministers; the Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Chief Medical Officer in Scotland, in consultation with the Chief Scientific Advisor for Scotland have identified the need for additional scientific analysis of the impact of Covid-19 in Scotland, based on regularly updated advice and modelling from SAGE, and other emerging scientific evidence. In response, the Scottish Government COVID-19 Advisory Group has been set up and is chaired by Professor Andrew Morris, Professor of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and Director of Health Data Research UK. He will be supported by vice chair, Professor David Crossman, Dean of Medicine at the University of St Andrews and Chief Scientist (Health) at the Scottish Government. The Group has met twice and the minutes of those meetings are published at: www.gov.scot/groups/scottish-government-covid-19-advisory-group/ .

The Scottish Government has been modelling the impact for Scotland and updating this work as new epidemiological work and assumptions are provided by the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M). This includes modelling demand for hospital services and is currently based on a reasonable worst case scenario that 80% of the UK will become infected as some point. Modelling has also been done on the reduction in the reasonable worst case for the social interventions under consideration and live across Scotland. Figures on actual cases on those hospitalised as a result of Covid-19 are published daily by the Scottish Government.

NHS Scotland currently has 13,105 staffed beds in acute specialties.

The First Minister announced on 30 th March 2020 that work will begin to transform the Scottish Exhibition Centre in Glasgow into a temporary hospital.

The NHS Louisa Jordan will increase capacity in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This will be an NHS hospital, staffed and operated by the National Health Service. It will have beds for 300 patients initially with capacity to take over 1000 patients.

The Scottish Government is in regular dialogue with Energy UK and individual energy companies to understand the impact of the Covid 19 on their operations and on energy consumers.

There has been ministerial and official engagement with suppliers and Ofgem focused on the difficulties that vulnerable customers may be facing at this time, and measures being taken to encourage customers to engage early with their supplier(s). In order to address these impacts, suppliers have agreed to a number of actions including deferring payments wherever possible and taking additional steps to identify consumers at risk.

There has been no substantive discussion with suppliers on energy tariffs themselves, albeit we have recently been made aware of early engagement suppliers are taking forward with UK Ministers in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on these matters as well as business impacts on the sector, given legislative and regulatory powers currently sit with UK Ministers and the UK Parliament, as a consequence of provisions of the Scotland Act (1998).

The Scottish Government is providing an additional £45 million to local authorities for the provision of awards from the Scottish Welfare Fund. £22 million of that will be distributed immediately using the current SIMD model as set out in the following table. The remaining £23 million will be distributed later and targeted where it is needed most:

Scottish Welfare Fund allocations to local authorities