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The contact tracing system has not changed its approach regarding the time frame used to identify close contacts.

Those testing positive who have attended a complex or high-risk setting during their infectious period, or who have travelled in the last 14 days, are contact traced and then referred to their local Health Board, who will make a risk-based decision on whether ‘backwards’ contact tracing is appropriate to enable Test and Protect to identify where the index case might have contracted the virus. This ‘pre-infectious period’ covers the 5 days prior to the infectious period.

Separately, the timeframe of 48 hours before symptom onset or a positive test, plus the 10 days after, relates to the infectious period of a positive person. This is based on clinical advice and has been the position since Test and Protect was launched in May 2020. Close contacts identified during this timeframe are offered public health advice by Test and Protect to prevent potential onward spread of the virus.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

We want event organisers to be able to plan future activity with confidence, but we must continue to move very carefully to ensure continued suppression of COVID-19. The First Minister’s statement on 13 July confirmed that the size of events and stadia attendances will increase outdoors to 2,000 seated and 1,000 standing, and indoors to 400.

If event organisers want to organise an event when in Level 0 in excess of the relevant capacity limits, they must apply for approval to the relevant local authority.

This requires Event organisers to apply in line with the requirements of the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 as amended and provide the Local Authority with an application in writing (can be email) along with the minimum of:

• A description of the type of event (or events) proposed,
• An event plan for the event (or events) proposed, and
• A risk assessment for the event (or events) proposed, including what measures are proposed relating to the prevention or minimisation of the risk of the incidence and spread of coronavirus arising from the event (or events).

Since May 2020 the Scottish Government has published projections of infections, hospitalisations and ICU admissions in its weekly publication Modelling the Epidemic in Scotland Coronavirus (COVID-19): modelling the epidemic - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . These projections also feed into internal Scottish Government models on the demand of the Test and Protect system, including the tracing workforce, to enable operational planning.

The path of the pandemic has been highly complex and uncertain over the last 16 months and this is reflected in the complexity and uncertainty of the modelling. We make the best judgements we can on the data in front of us and the advice we have. Right now, as often in the past, our judgement is that the best path for us in Scotland is to make progress carefully and cautiously, and that is what we are doing.

The bowel, breast and cervical screening programmes are governed by their respective programme boards, as well as the National Screening Oversight and the Scottish Screening Committee. They monitor and evaluate performance, including uptake rates, against a set of standards developed by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

Additional information has been provided over the course of the pandemic, to reassure people that travel to attend a screening appointment during lockdown was classed as essential and that appropriate infection control measures are in place, so they can feel confident about attending.

In addition to providing information on NHS Inform, each programme has developed tailored communications to recognise additional concerns and challenges caused by the pandemic, and each continues to take steps to reduce barriers to screening and increase uptake.

The bowel screening programme includes supplementary information in home test kits, and has a dedicated helpline to answer all questions. Since the breast screening programme restarted last summer, breast screening centres have been contacting participants ahead of their appointments to confirm their intention to attend. To ensure sufficient capacity in the cervical screening programme to allow uptake of invitations following the pause, the Scottish Government provided just under £1 million to support capacity in sample taking and colposcopy services. To raise awareness and increase uptake we supported social media messaging during Cervical Screening Awareness week in June. Later this year, the Scottish Government will also be launching a campaign to communicate the benefits of cervical screening.

The Scottish Government recognises that the Covid-19 pandemic may have exacerbated inequalities in screening uptake, and we have committed £2 million over the next two years, to build a programme of evidence-based, sustainable and scalable projects that tackle inequalities in a systemic way.

Statistics for the cervical screening programme that will allow comparisons with pre-Covid-19 pandemic uptake are due to be published by Public Health Scotland on 1 September 2021.

Comparable data on national performance for uptake in the breast and bowel screening programmes that will allow comparisons between uptake before and after the COVID-19 pandemic will be made available in 2022. NHS National Services Division advise that recent uptake in the bowel screening programme is similar to pre-pandemic levels at around 67%. Breast screening uptake is measured on an annual and 3 year cycle with current indications that uptake is running at an average of 80% across the whole programme, which is higher than uptake prior to the pandemic.

Live music performers should follow the performing arts guidance, available here . This was developed with a wide range of performing arts practitioners and looked ahead to outline details for the eventual resumption of live public performances. This guidance was last updated on 19 July. This update confirmed the move from 2 metre physical distancing to 1 metre in all indoor settings including in performing arts venues.

Separate guidance is available for live music performances which take place in hospitality settings. This reflects the different considerations that need to make in hospitality settings. The guidance for live entertainment in hospitality was updated on 16 July. The main purpose of the update was to indicate that live entertainment would be possible in general hospitality from 19 July.

With regards to live performances in events and stadia settings, the First Minister’s statement on 13 July confirmed maximum attendances as 2,000 in seated outdoor settings and 1,000 in standing outdoor settings, and indoors to 400. Organisers can apply to local authorities for higher attendance capacities.

To assist event organisers the Scottish Government has developed guidance for the sector, last update on 20 July: Coronavirus (COVID-19): events sector guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The next review of restrictions will be in the week before 9 August when we hope to be able to move beyond Level 0 with baseline mitigations in place. We have consulted with the live performance sector widely on these mitigations to ensure we understand the impact they will have on businesses and their likely effectiveness.

This Scottish Government is committed to concluding the Local Governance Review within this parliament. During the first phase of the Review, the Scottish Government, COSLA and the community sector undertook a highly inclusive engagement process called Democracy Matters. People from diverse backgrounds overwhelmingly wanted to see bold changes to how power is shared. Further extensive engagement with communities - of place and interest - will be an important part of understanding how best to respond to people’s aspirations for genuine control over those decisions which affect them the most.

This Scottish Government is committed to concluding the Local Governance Review within this parliament.

As I said in my reply to S6W-01546 on 29 July 2021, I chair the Construction Leadership Forum (CLF) that meets monthly and is driving progress on the Construction Recovery Plan. Actions implemented so far include: introduced new ways of working for managing infection control health and safety; work to retain the current and future apprentice pipeline and the Construction Pipeline Forecast Tool.

Policy on corporate insolvency is largely reserved to the UK Government. The temporary suspension on statutory demands and restrictions on petitions to wind up companies is scheduled to expire at the end of September. The Scottish Government would support action by the UK Government to enable further transitional provisions and to extend these protections.

We remain focused on delivering the maximum support for businesses and the economy as possible. Since the start of the pandemic, businesses have directly benefitted from more than £3.7bn in support – more than a third of total COVID-19 funding – £2.8bn in grants and £965m in COVID-19 non-domestic rates reliefs.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers