- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 July 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the 2019 decision paper, Asset Replacement, by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, what cost allowance the Commission has used for additional cost pressures arising from (a) replacing assets while not interrupting service, (b) replacing assets in more developed areas and (c) new regulations, and whether it will publish details of the calculations and analysis the Commission used to form its view.
Answer
This is a matter for the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, and I have asked them to respond directly in writing to your question.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 July 2020
To ask the Scottish Government whether the Water Industry Commission for Scotland has (a) played a leadership role in developing the framework for future investment requirements for the future of the water industry within the Strategic Review of Charges 2021/27 and (b) provided analysis and papers on potential future investment requirements and targets to any working groups of stakeholders or others and, if so, whether it will publish these papers.
Answer
The Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) has worked with Scottish Government, Scottish Water, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Drinking Water Quality Regulator to identify the future investment requirements. The minutes of key meetings are already published on its website and it has published a range of relevant papers.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 July 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the 2020 decision paper, Prospects for Prices, by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, whether it would support charges raised for the purpose of providing for the cost of emissions in appraisals being spent on investments not directly related to that purpose.
Answer
Scottish Water is funded through revenue raised from customer charges and borrowing from the Scottish Government. This finances, amongst other spend, Scottish Water’s investment programme and therefore charge revenue, or any parts thereof, is not hypothecated to particular investments.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 July 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the 2019 decision paper, Asset Replacement, by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, how the figure of an additional £50 million per annum for service improvements and growth was calculated and whether it will publish the methodology used.
Answer
This is a matter for the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, and I have asked them to respond directly in writing to your question.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 July 2020
To ask the Scottish Government how many tests for COVID-19 have been carried out on people with (a) learning disabilities and (b) other support needs who are resident in care homes.
Answer
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 .
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 April 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 July 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-27952 by Jeane Freeman on 15 April 2020, how many samples have been taken each week; what this confirms about prevalence, and when it will publish prevalence data.
Answer
The COVID-19 data and trend charts for Scotland are published daily and provide a range of information, including the cumulative number of people tested for COVID-19 in Scotland and how many of the tests had a positive result. The link to the daily data update is: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/ .
In addition, Test and Protect was rolled out across Scotland on 28 May 2020 and the Test and Protect data is published on Public Health Scotland's website at:
https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/population-health/covid-19/covid-19-statistical-report/
Health Protection Scotland are conducting surveillance swab testing in the community for individuals with mild to moderate symptoms. Testing commenced on 27 April and results are available a week later by HPS report for internal planning and surveillance purposes. Details of this can be found at: https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/a-to-z-of-topics/enhanced-surveillance-of-coronavirus-covid-19/
Antibody testing will help us understand if a person has had the infection and will enable us to learn more about the virus and gain an understanding of how it is spreading through the population in Scotland. Health Protection Scotland commenced antibody testing on 6 May. This will inform wider published information on the Government's response to the virus. Evidence is evolving on whether the presence of antibodies indicates that someone is immune, and if so, for how long that immunity would persist.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to roll out COVID-19 antibody testing more widely, and when will these tests will be made available by the NHS to the general public.
Answer
Any decision to purchase tests for a large-scale roll-out of antibody testing in Scotland will be led by clinical advice.
Antibody testing has been underway since 6 May in Scotland to support disease surveillance and we are in the process of validating a number of antibody tests to identify which ones carry the right level of efficacy and those which are identified as meeting the required quality standards will be prioritised for purchase.
As new and more reliable tests become validated, we are drawing on clinical and scientific advice to develop plans on how they will be best deployed. However, there are still significant uncertainties about what the presence of antibodies means in terms of a person’s immunity, which means that there are significant limitations in the usefulness of these tests at the current time.
These tests can have a crucial part to play in our response to COVID-19, and we will continue to listen to advice on the emerging scientific evidence on immunity.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak, for what reason local authorities are reportedly continuing to hire agency staff to work in different care homes.
Answer
The National Clinical and Practice Guidance for Adult Care Homes in Scotland states that staff should not work in more than one facility and movement between care homes must be restricted. It is recognised that this can be a fine balance in achieving appropriate staffing levels, service sustainability and reducing the risks of transmission.
It is critical that we protect care homes and their residents by using infection prevention and control techniques to reduce the impact of this virus. Health Protection Scotland has published specific guidance for infection prevention and control to support those working in care home settings which is regularly updated on their website.
The Social Care Covid19 Accelerated recruitment portal, to support social care employers should they require additional staff, remains in place to support the resilience of the workforce. This enables those with relevant skills and experience to come forward and support health and social care services at this time of national emergency, reducing the need for agency staff.
Care providers have direct access to this portal if they require support due to staff shortages.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government how many people who have tested positive for COVID-19 have the contact tracers been in touch with so far, and how many of their contacts have the tracers subsequently alerted.
Answer
From 28 May to 7 June, 681 index cases have been recorded in the Test and Protect system. From these, 741 contacts have been traced.
An 'index case' is a person with a positive test result recorded in the Test and Protect system. New data will be released weekly, and is available from Public Health Scotland's weekly statistical report: https://publichealthscotland.scot/news/initial-contact-tracing-figures-for-scotland/ .
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 26 June 2020
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the COVID-19 R rate on a regional basis.
Answer
The R number is calculated for Scotland as well as for the other three countries of the United Kingdom, and we publish it on a weekly basis. The R number is not calculated for Scottish regions, because the ranges around the estimates would be very large and that would not help us to understand the differences between areas of Scotland. Instead of doing that, we are looking at other ways of monitoring and forecasting the level of COVID-19 in regions; we use data such as the number of cases and hospitalisations to track the epidemic. The most recent daily statistics for COVID-19 in Scotland are available by health board and can be found in the daily data for Scotland . We will also use the information that starts to come through the test and protect programme. More information about the modelling is available from a series of Scottish Government reports .