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NHS Scotland Laboratories have a protocol in place to carry out confirmation testing (or repeat testing) in certain circumstances to confirm whether low positive test results should be reported as positive or negative. NHS Scotland Labs have instigated a method for ensuring veracity of low positive results and can be found at the following link: -

https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/web-resources-container/covid-19-guidance-for-sampling-and-laboratory-investigations

UK Government Laboratories (Lighthouse) also have similar quality procedure systems in place to minimise false positives but are unable to repeat test low positive results.

The information required is provided through the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/

Pillar 1 is NHS Scotland labs

Pillar 2 is UK Government testing programme

The cycle threshold (Ct) can be used as an indicator of the concentration of viral genetic material in a patient sample; a typical PCR assay will have a maximum of 40 thermal cycles. Ct values are not directly comparable between assays and may not be reported by some PCR platforms in use. Individual laboratories will hold details of the Ct reached for each individual specimen who will have quality systems in place to ensure the veracity of the results.

The Scottish Government is not currently planning to test everyone who has been diagnosed with Covid-19 for antibodies.

There is currently no clinical certainty around what proportion of people may have a detectable antibody response following infection, and also how long detectable levels of antibodies remain following infection. Therefore a negative antibody test result does not confirm that a previous diagnosis of Covid-19 was incorrect.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests being used for diagnosing Covid-19 detect the viral genetic sequence of the causative virus SARS-CoV-2. These tests are very sensitive and the gold standard for respiratory viruses. They are specific and shown not to detect other coronaviruses and have been tested on large panels of negative clinical samples.

In Scotland we are using antibody tests to improve our understanding of COVID-19, and in the clinical management of patients, where appropriate. Clinicians have the discretion to request an antibody test for an individual if they determine the result will be of benefit to the treatment or clinical management of a patient.

The number patient deaths in intensive care units there were between 1 September and 31 October 2020, and how this compares with each of the previous five years can be found in the following table.

Table 1. Number of deaths in Intensive Care and Combined Units in Scotland
‎ (1 September – 31 October for each year from 2016 to 2020).

NHS Scotland Laboratories are UKAS accredited and thus have quality procedures in place to minimise and guard against cross contamination of samples, and protocols in place to communicate and organise retesting if found to have occurred. Public Health Scotland have provided guidance which can be found here: -

https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/web-resources-container/covid-19-guidance
-for-sampling-and-laboratory-investigations

It is not normal practice to spike patient samples with positive control synthetic sequence and then subject them to sequencing. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of samples where this procedure has been carried out.

The aim of the Strategic Framework restrictions are to suppress the growth in total infections and deaths. Predicting the exact effects of the restrictions on deaths is difficult, though Scottish Government is closely monitoring changes in the epidemic on an ongoing basis. Data on infections are published on the Scottish Government website each week.

The Scottish Government is monitoring evidence on the different harms and is using this information to inform decisions about COVID-19. We are presenting this information in the Covid-19 in Scotland dashboard: https://data.gov.scot/coronavirus-covid-19/index.html .

One way we can assess the impact of the restrictions is the excess deaths, which is included in the dashboard. The information, covering the pandemic, is published by National Records of Scotland (NRS) in their weekly 'Deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland' reports. The report published on 2 December: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/covid-deaths-report-week-48.pdf showed that from week 12 to week 48 (mid-March to the end of November) there were 2,319 excess deaths in care homes (26% above average), 4,475 excess deaths at home or in non-institutional settings (42% above average) and after an early peak, hospital deaths are now 636 (3%) below average levels for the period covering weeks 12-48.

The Warmer Homes Scotland contract is delivered on the basis of 6 separate regions. From 1 October 2015 to 30 November 2020 a total of 20,698 properties have been assisted.

Highlands – 1,858

Islands – 1,126

North East – 3,314

South East – 4,198

South West – 2,214

Strathclyde & Central - 7,988

Warmworks has sub-contractor framework agreements in place with 22 installers and 3 support suppliers. Warmworks follows OJEU best practice in tendering its supply chain opportunities and is a registered vendor on Public Contracts Scotland. It does not procure its supply chain of sub-contractors in a way that allows the cost of each contract to be individually calculated. All Warmworks contractors are registered in the UK.

The space sector is a key priority for the Scottish Government and its enterprise agencies. As highlighted through the Inward Investment Plan, the global space market is estimated to be worth £400bn by 2030. The Scottish Government’s ambition is for Scotland to become the first country in Europe to provide an end-to-end solution for small satellite manufacture, launch and innovation in satellite data analysis. Scotland is already ‘punching above its weight’ with 133 companies operating in the space sector in Scotland employing 8,000 people (19% of the UK total).

Our Enterprise Agencies are the primary sources for providing financial support to the space sector, demonstrated in particular through the Highland and Island Enterprise development of Space Hub Sutherland, which has become the first spaceport in the UK to achieve planning consent, and through Scottish Enterprise support for companies such as Spire Global.

In addition, the Scottish Government in partnership with UK Government and South Ayrshire Council are investing £80m through the Ayrshire Growth Deal to position Ayrshire as one of the UK’s leading centres of Aerospace and Space activity through an ambitious and transformational Aerospace and Space Programme.

The Scottish Government will continue to support the development of the space sector through collaboration with the Scottish Space Leadership Council.