Chamber and committees

Our health and care system continues to respond magnificently to the enormous challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHS Scotland has begun safely and incrementally resuming some services that have been suspended, delayed or deferred due to coronavirus, whilst continuing to protect emergency, urgent and maternity care, support for social care and continuing to maintain COVID-19 capacity and resilience; in line with Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design: the Framework for NHS Scotland, published on 31 May.

The reality is coronavirus is likely to be with us for some time to come, and so many changes made in the coming weeks and months have to be measured against the need to keep the virus under control, continuing to protect the NHS and save lives. Health Boards and their planning partners will continue to work on safely resuming services whilst protecting COVID-19 capacity, as informed by the evidence, clinical priorities and associated national frameworks and guidance.

Nonetheless, I am mindful of the challenges that winter is likely to bring over the coming months, including seasonal flu and bad weather. I want to ensure that our health and care services are fully supported across winter, so NHS Scotland will remain on an emergency footing until at least 31 March 2021, at which point I will review the situation again.

As of 10 July, our delivery partner, Sustrans, has awarded a total of £29,603,681 to local authorities and statutory bodies through the Spaces for People programme. We are also considering repurposing a final amount of funding from the active travel budget for additional bids in the pipeline amounting to £8,647,487.

The fund is therefore now closed to further applications. However, I would urge local authorities to continue to discuss proposals for active travel infrastructure with Sustrans as other funding routes and programmes may be appropriate.

I would also like to remind local authorities that the Cycling, Walking and Safer Routes grant distributed to every local authority through the Local Government Settlement, was increased by £15 million pounds this year, to £23.9 million pounds in total and that too should be used for active travel infrastructure.

A breakdown of awards is shown at Table 1

Table 1 Spaces for People awards by Organisation

The Scottish Government has today published COVID-19: Scotland’s route map through and out of the crisis – Update on approach to physical distancing in light of advice from the Scottish Government COVID-19 Advisory Group which provides an update on the approach to physical distancing in Scotland as we move through Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Route Map. This approach continues to be informed by evidence and has been updated in light of advice from the Scottish Government COVID-19 Advisory Group which has also been published today.

The publication also updates on the final stage of Phase 2 of Scotland’s Route Map. Continued progress in suppressing the virus, as measured by the latest data, means that we are able to confirm the indicative dates for the remainder of Phase 2, concerning relaxation of the 5 mile guidance on travel for leisure purposes, the re-opening of self-contained, self-catering accommodation and the re-opening of outdoor hospitality. Changes to allow children and young-people more opportunity to meet up are also set out.

We are no longer planning to introduce the Restricting Foods Promotions Bill in this Parliament.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact, including on the food and drink and retail industries and on consumer behaviour. It is not yet clear what its long term impact will be. It is important we understand this fully and that we assess the economic and equality impacts of our proposed measures post-pandemic.

Pausing the introduction of the Bill provides us with an opportunity to take stock. It enables us to take into account the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown, including on people’s diet and healthy weight. We will be able to consider fully whether a more wide-ranging Bill is required to tackle Scotland’s diet and weight problem after the pandemic.

Tackling poor diet and overweight is a public health priority and remains a priority for this government. We are taking wide-ranging action to help people make healthier eating choices. As set out in our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, our ambition is to halve childhood obesity by 2030 and significantly reduce diet-related health inequalities.

We remain fully committed to restricting the promotion and marketing of foods high in fat, sugar or salt where they are sold to the public and will seek to progress this measure as soon as it is possible to do so. Work already underway to further improve the evidence base to underpin the proposals will continue. We will also continue to engage with the other administrations in the UK to explore the scope for the possible alignment of policy and legislation.

Coronavirus is a shared challenge and so it is critically important that the Scottish Government works closely with the other UK nations to slow its spread and boost our capacity to respond.

This has resulted in consideration of a number of mutual aid requests for PPE items.

11 million pieces of PPE have been authorised for use in the frontline in Scotland under the 4 Nations Agreement.

On 20 April we agreed to provide 1 million Type 11R Masks to Wales.

On 3 May we received a mutual aid request from England for eye protection items (of any volumes) which we were unable to provide due to low stock levels.

On 12 May we agreed to provide 2 million Type 11R Masks to England.

To note: The 1 million Type IIR masks issued to Wales - Wales returned 1.2million Type IIR masks. The 2 million Type IIR Masks issued to England - these have not yet been returned. SG is arranging for re-supply with DHSC.

Thanks to the significant efforts of National Services Scotland in sourcing and procuring PPE items, Scotland has been able to maintain supplies and meet demand during the COVID-19 outbreak. We, therefore, have not requested any formal mutual aid support from other UK nations.

We have today published COVID-19: Framework for Decision Making – Scotland’s route map through and out of the crisis , which sets out a phased approach to carefully and gradually changing current restrictions in place to suppress the spread of Covid-19, subject to the evidence supporting that. It makes clear that we will continue to take a cautious approach that ensures that the virus is suppressed, while seeking to restore as much normality as possible when it is safe to do so.

We will also publish a summary of what we have heard through our online platform – open between 5 May and 11 May – through which we received more than 4,000 ideas and almost 18,000 comments on a range of themes.

COVID-19: A Framework for Decision Making set out the approach and principles that will guide us as we make decisions about transitioning out of the current lockdown arrangements. One of the range of public health measures we will deploy in order to ensure low levels of community transmission is the “Test, Trace, Isolate, Support” approach.

The Scottish Government today published a paper titled Test, Trace, Isolate, Support - a Public Health approach to maintaining low levels . The paper sets out the Government’s approach and the extensive work that is now underway to prepare for its implementation. This paper can be accessed here: www.gov.scot/isbn/9781839607271

The framework and paper describes the steps we are taking, and the steps we are asking the public to take, to return as much normality to daily life.

The Scottish Government has today published COVID-19: A Framework for decision-making . It sets out some of the challenges Scotland faces and outlines the approach and principles that will guide us as we make decisions about transitioning out of the current lockdown arrangements. As a government we will listen to the best scientific advice and to the people of Scotland as we make our judgements. This is a living document and will be updated as evidence, modelling, and our assessment of the different options open to us develops. We will seek to engage at every opportunity and be open and transparent as our thinking evolves.

The Scottish Government is committed to giving the people living in Scotland a choice over their future, as the Scottish Parliament voted for on 29 January.

We will ask the Electoral Commission to test the question, ‘‘should Scotland be an independent country?’.

We will invite Scotland’s elected representatives—MSPs, MPs, MEPs and Council Leaders—to establish a new Constitutional Convention, and endorse a modern Claim of Right for Scotland.

And we will publish a series of ‘New Scotland’ papers that will give the people of Scotland the information they need to make informed choices about the future of the country.