Chamber and committees

The health and wellbeing of individuals, communities and the economy is the priority of the Scottish Government. All employers in Scotland should follow the existing Scottish guidance, support workers to follow health protection advice and have a statutory duty to ensure that workers’ health and safety is protected. This includes undertaking risk assessments of their work activity, assessing the risk from Covid-19 spread in the workplace, and putting in place appropriate mitigating measures.

There is a wide range of guidance available from both the Scottish Government and Health and Safety Executive. Advice can also be obtained from local authorities on steps that can be taken to comply with legislation and to keep employees safe. Additionally, Healthy Working Lives (part of Public Health Scotland) provides advice and support to both employers and employees on improving health, safety and welfare in the workplace. The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with the trade unions and other partners to prepare detailed safety guidance for different sectors. The guidance will take account of our long-established commitment to fair work, which was set out in the context of the current crisis in a joint statement with the STUC.

If an employee believes that their working conditions are unsafe, they have rights under employment legislation.

Information on the delays relating to funding and a lack of care home places can be found in the Delayed Discharge monthly census, published by Health Protection Scotland at https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-and-social-care/delayed-discharges/ .

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the specific conversations local health and social care staff have with patients and families regarding discharge.

The Scottish Government does not directly purchase care home places, this is the responsibility of individual Integration Authorities. As part of their mobilisation planning during the pandemic, 32 Integration Authorities planned for up to 1,090 additional care home places to be available if required during the current emergency.

However, we do not currently have information on the actual number of beds use.

We are setting up a working group with representation from trades unions, employers, regulators and workforce representatives to develop workplace guidance for contact/call centres. In developing guidance for this sector, as we have done for other sectors whose guidance we have already published, we will take account of our long-established commitment to fair work, which was set in the context of the current crisis in a joint statement with the STUC. Working together – employers, workers, unions and the regulatory bodies – we can create safe workplaces for all.

The Scottish Government has produced Business and Physical Distancing Guidance, which is clear that employers should take every possible step to facilitate their employees working from home, including providing suitable IT and equipment to enable remote working.

There is a wide range of additional guidance available from both the Scottish Government and Health and Safety Executive. Advice can also be obtained from local authorities on steps that can be taken to comply with legislation and to keep employees safe.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29648 on 12 June 2020 which is available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/ormain.aspx

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29722 on 17 June 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

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with the STUC to prepare detailed safety guidance for different sectors. The guidance will take account of our long-established commitment to fair work, which was set in the context of the current crisis in a joint statement with the STUC.

Employers should be supporting workers to follow health protection advice and have a statutory duty to ensure that workers’ health and safety is protected.

As stated in the answer to question S5W-29035, risk of deductive disclosure leading to a breach of patient confidentiality means that data about the number of people at the hotel or nearby who tested at that time will not be released. However, any case that tested positive, whether related to this event or not, has always been included in our daily COVID-19 updates.

You may also wish to note that research from the University of Glasgow published on 8 June on viral lineages of the disease concluded that the actions taken to manage the Nike outbreak were successful in containing spread from that incident. This led to the eradication of this particular viral lineage, with no evidence of any wider outbreak associated with it in Scotland since that time.

The information requested is not held centrally. Information on annual expenditure can be found in the Scottish local government finance statistics workbook.

Workbook LRF 03 provides information of social care expenditure. The latest workbook can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2018-19-workbooks/ .