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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-30469

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 July 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 17 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to test for COVID-19 (a) people who have a learning disability and who receive social care support and (b) social care staff who provide such support.

Testing for COVID-19 in Scotland is available to all symptomatic individuals aged 5 years and over through the Test and Protect Programme further information can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-getting-tested/ or by calling 0300 303 2713.

The Scottish Government is committed to using testing where it has a clear purpose and can contribute to reducing the risk of transmission. We will continue to adopt a flexible approach to testing which is based on the best available evidence to address the challenges where it can have the greatest impact and is guided by scientific, clinical and public health advice from our expert advisory structures.

Testing is one of a number of key public health mitigation measures and must be seen alongside a strong emphasis on removing symptomatic health and social care staff from the work, the use of PPE, physical distancing, environmental optimisation and decontamination and good social hygiene. It must not be seen as a substitute.

Question reference: S5W-30504

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 July 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 17 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-29241 by Jeane Freeman on 2 July 2020, how many adults who have learning disabilities and live in residential care have been tested for COVID-19, also broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S5W-30467

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 July 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 17 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many people with learning disabilities have tested positive for COVID-19.

Question reference: S5W-28732

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 16 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, of the patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have died in hospital, how many were residents of older people’s care homes.

Question reference: S5W-30472

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 July 2020
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 13 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how children with additional support needs will be supported to return to face-to-face education in August 2020, and how lost learning will be recovered for these children in the recovery period.

One of our key priorities is to ensure that children and young people with additional support needs, continue to be fully supported with their learning as we begin to transition back to a greater level of face-to-face education.

The needs of individual children should be carefully considered by education authorities, schools and early learning centres within the plans for anticipating a return to schools on a full-time basis in August. Our national guidance on continuity of learning supports this approach.

To further support local authorities and schools, Education Scotland has developed bespoke resources to assist in planning the individual support that children and young people with additional support needs may require in their transition back to school or in their progression to another learning setting.

Question reference: S5W-29782

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many care home residents have received COVID-19 tests since it announced the expansion of testing, whether they are symptomatic or not.

The COVID-19 data and trend charts for Scotland are published daily and provide a range of information, including the number of care homes notifying cases of COVID-19 and the number of suspected cases of COVID-19 in care homes. The data also includes the daily number of people in hospital with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 but does not include details on how many of these are care home residents or staff. The cumulative number of people tested and the number of positive and negative tests is also provided.

Weekly data on COVID-19 in adult care homes in Scotland is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-additional-data
-about-adult-care-homes-in-scotland/ .

You can find figures updated every day at 2pm (including care home data) here: Coronavirus (COVID-19): Daily data for Scotland .

Question reference: S5W-29543

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-28665 by Jeane Freeman on 18 May 2020, how many people were discharged from hospital to a care home in (a) March, (b) April and (c) May 2020, also broken down by how many were tested for COVID-19.

Question reference: S5W-29355

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government where COVID-19 testing is being carried out.

There are 6 drive-through testing centres in Scotland as part of the UK Government’s Expanded Testing Programme. These are located at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen airports, the Highlands and Islands University campus’ in Inverness and Perth, and Prestwick Airport.

The UK Government's Expanded Testing Programme also provides Mobile Testing Units. Mobile testing units (MTU) were deployed for the first time in Scotland on 30 April. On Wednesday 10 June, 9 Mobile Testing Units were operational at: Dornoch, Galashiels, Fort William, Stirling, Motherwell, Prestwick, Greenock, Dundee & Glenrothes.

Mobile Testing Units are deployed on a rolling programme around the country, and decisions on deployment are made in conjunction with Local Resilience Partnership and Regional Resilience Partnership. These decisions are informed by local factors of public health, population, rurality, access to testing and need for specific responses to outbreaks. We are working with local authorities and health boards to ensure Mobile Testing Unit deployment is publicised locally.

We are continuing to work with partners to increase testing pathways in the community to widen availability to testing for people going forward in addition to the testing which takes place within care homes and our NHS hospitals.

Question reference: S5W-29356

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government which laboratories are being used to analyse COVID-19 test results.

NHS Board Laboratories - We have NHS labs operating in all 14 health board areas: Together, these have a maximum normal lab capacity for more than 10,000 tests a day.

Supporting Laboratories - Our testing capacity is supported the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service lab and non-NHS labs at the University of Edinburgh and University of Aberdeen.

Lighthouse Laboratory - The Lighthouse Laboratory, based at Glasgow University is one of three Lighthouse Centres across the UK. It has a testing capacity of around 20,000 tests a day.

Question reference: S5W-29442

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 July 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how the COVID-19 R number is calculated, and what the number is for care homes.

The Scottish Government published a description of how the Covid-19 R number is calculated on 21st May. This is available via the link. https://www.gov.scot/publications/
covid-19-modelling-epidemic-scotland/ .

The model uses data and provides an R value for Scotland in its entirety. The contribution of care homes, hospitals and the community at large to the overall value, and the links between them, are not well understood. Scottish Government analysts are working with academic groups and modellers from across the UK, through the SPIM and SAGE groups to develop ways to do this, and we await their findings. The Scottish Government is also carefully considering a range of Covid statistics on care homes. This includes data produced daily by Scottish Government on the number of number of care homes notifying cases of COVID-19, and the number of suspected cases of COVID-19 in care homes. This also includes weekly excess deaths produced by National Records of Scotland to help understand where people have died from Covid-19.