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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-33468

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government which private companies are involved in the operation of the Coronavirus (COVID-19): ONS Infection Survey in Scotland; who they were contracted by, and whether it will place any details it holds on these contracts and their value in SPICe.

The survey is being conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in collaboration with the University of Oxford on behalf of the UK and Scottish Government. Private organisations provide some of the services associated with this study.

IQVIA is responsible for carrying out the nose and throat swabs, and taking the blood samples. Serco and IQVIA are jointly responsible for arranging appointments for participants and study workers. HH Global, Gov Notify and GovDelivery are the service providers that help study workers get in touch with participants and Sodexo is the service provider responsible for the vouchers sent as a thank you for study participation.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on these contracts as the ONS is carrying out this survey, therefore there are currently no plans to include this information in SPICe. If more information is required, this is a matter for the Office for National Statistics as the information requested is not held centrally.

Question reference: S5W-33472

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what level of asymptomatic testing for surveillance has been achieved through the Coronavirus (COVID-19): ONS Infection Survey in Scotland in each week since it began.

Question reference: S5W-33471

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the sample size has been for the Coronavirus (COVID-19): ONS Infection Survey in each week since it began, and how this compares with other parts of the UK.

Figures published on 26 November show that the total number of eligible individuals in households that have registered for the study for each country in the UK up to 21 November, which ONS recommend can be used as the study sample size. It is important to note that each country joined the study at different times, and as Scotland was the last country to join the study, the Scottish sample size has had the least time to expand.

Current Sign-up status	UK	England	Wales	Northern Ireland	Scotland
Households registered	207,735	183,511	7,679	3,766	12,779
Eligible individuals in registered households (total)	437,446	389,119	15,622	7,890	24,815

The sample size (number of individual participants) used for analysis for each week of the study is not available, as analysis is predominantly based on two week periods. The most recent 14-day estimates for Scotland are included in the below table, along with the 14-day estimates for the other UK countries in order to provide a comparison. Please be aware that sample size figures will contain the same individuals across different time periods and for this reason, it is not appropriate to sum up counts from multiple periods, as this will lead to double counting. A small proportion of samples are excluded from analysis due to missing characteristics data.

14-day period	Sample Size (individual participants)
14-day period	Scotland	England	Wales	Northern Ireland
27 September to 10 October 2020	2,999	162,448	3,506	2,836
11 October to 24 October 2020	5,672	182,184	4,810	3,073
25 October to 07 November 2020	5,656	158,308	4,459	3,197
08 November to 21 November 2020	8,192	169,333	5,068	3,604

Figures can be found on the ONS website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare
/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/
26november2020/relateddata

Question reference: S5W-33462

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government on what date the Coronavirus (COVID-19): ONS Infection Survey began in Scotland; how this compares with other parts of the UK, and, if there were different commencement dates, what the reason was for this.

The COVID-19 Infection Survey began as a pilot survey in England with fieldwork commencing on 26 April, initially inviting 20,276 English households to participate. The first results for England were published on 14 May. Fieldwork began in Wales on 29 June and the first results for Wales were published on 7 August. Fieldwork in Northern Ireland commenced on 26th July, and the first results including Northern Ireland were published on 25 September.

The Scottish Government announced on 17 August that, as part of its Testing Strategy, Scotland would be opting into the now UK-wide COVID Infection Survey with the aim of testing 15,000 individuals per two week period. Fieldwork commenced in Scotland on 21 September and has been ongoing since then. The first results for Scotland were published on 23 October on the Scottish Government website and on the ONS website alongside results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Department of Health and Social Care announced on 19 th August that the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey would be expanded to 400,000 people in England.

Decisions behind the timing of Scotland opting into the survey were affected by whether or not the survey would be expanded in England, increasing the scale and analytical potential of the survey in each of the four nations of the UK.

Question reference: S5W-33464

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it makes a contribution to the costs of the Coronavirus (COVID-19): ONS Infection Survey, and, if so, how much, and what the total cost of the survey is.

Question reference: S5W-33465

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to it stating that response rates for the Coronavirus (COVID-19): ONS Infection Survey were "higher than initially expected", whether it will provide details of what this involved, and what implications this had for the operation of the survey.

Recruitment into the survey commenced in September, with letters inviting households to participate in the survey reaching the first Scottish households on 18 September. Field work started on 21 September, with survey teams starting to visit participant households from that date. The initial target for individuals swabbed per fortnight in Scotland was 15,000 with the aim of reaching this target as quickly as possible, and maintained within ±10% of this target. The timeframes for achieving this were based on registration data from the survey in England. In practice, these initial predictions on uptake in Scotland were underestimated and participant registration levels were significantly higher than those observed in England. Therefore, in order to not overshoot the target, recruitment was slowed down.

The increased number of participants recruited earlier in the study allowed more samples to be processed by an earlier date than expected, thus increasing the amount of data available and allowing analysis to be carried out sooner than anticipated for Scotland. It was originally planned that the first results for Scotland would be published on 6 November, however this was brought forward by two weeks to 23 October.

Question reference: S5W-33463

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 November 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what role it has in the oversight and operation of the fieldwork for the Coronavirus (COVID-19): ONS Infection Survey being conducted by the ONS and the University of Oxford on its behalf.

The survey is being conducted by the Office for National Statistics in collaboration with the University of Oxford on behalf of the UK and Scottish Government. Scottish Government officials play a key part in supporting the survey by providing oversight and operational support. Officials sit on the steering group, support day to day operations, provide analytical oversight and sign off on decisions affecting Scotland.

Question reference: S5F-04639

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 December 2020

Question to be taken in Chamber.

Question reference: S5O-04834

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the financial support for businesses in the rural economy and tourism sector that are affected by COVID-19 restrictions.

Question reference: S5F-04615

Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 30 November 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 December 2020

Question to be taken in Chamber.