PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS ON COVID-19 AND ANSWERS BY THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Thursday 8 October 2020.

Written questions lodged on 8 October can be found on pages 9 and 10 of this document.

First Minister’s Questions and Portfolio Questions relating to COVID-19 on 8 October are included at page 8.

ANSWERS TO PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS (Received on 8 October)

Government Initiated Question

James Dornan ( Cathcart) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its Programme for Government commitment to publish jointly with COSLA an updated Ending Homelessness Together action plan.

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Kevin Stewart: There has been an extraordinary response to ensure people experiencing homelessness, particularly those sleeping rough, were safe and supported during the pandemic.

In June I reconvened the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group (HARSAG) - chaired by Jon Sparkes, CEO of Crisis - to provided us with a comprehensive set of recommendations on tackling homelessness during the pandemic and longer term.

These new recommendations, alongside our existing plans for tackling homelessness, has led to an updated Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan - published 8 October.

In this updated plan, we also set out proposals to modify the night shelter provision this winter and our ambition to end their use altogether.

To support this transition, we are establishing rapid rehousing welcome centres to provide an under-one-roof service to people experiencing the most acute forms of homelessness, focused on supporting people into settled homes with the support they need.

The updated Action Plan commits to strengthening the voices of those who have experienced homelessness in the policy-making process, advancing legislative protections for people experiencing domestic abuse and exploring alternative routes to reduce migrant homelessness.

1 The Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group (HPSG), which I co-chair alongside Cllr Whitham, COSLA community wellbeing spokesperson, will continue to oversee the delivery of the updated action plan.

The updated Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan can be accessed here.

Ministerial portfolio: Economy, Fair Work and Culture

Maurice Golden (West ) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been (a) allocated and (b) delivered to each venue awarded support from the Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund.

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Fiona Hyslop: The £12.5m Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund is being managed by Creative Scotland on behalf of Scottish Government.

The Fund comprises two strands; £7.5m targeted funding for performing arts venues in Scotland currently in receipt of Regular Funding through Creative Scotland, and a £5m open fund for not-for-profit performing arts venues that are not currently in receipt of Regular Funding.

On 5 August Creative Scotland announced that 20 regularly funded venues across Scotland will receive a total of £7.5m from the first strand of the Fund.

On 24 September Creative Scotland announced that 59 venues across Scotland will receive a total of £4.7m from the open call for applications to the second strand of the Fund.

The following tables sets out (a) the level of funding allocated to each organisation and (b) the latest information on the timing of delivery of these funds to each venue that has been awarded support from the Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund.

Table 1: Recipients of Strand One of the Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund Award Funds Delivered Venue Local Authority Total Aberdeen Aberdeen City Successful applicants received their first £750,000 Performing Arts payment on 10 August except Citizens Na h-Eileanan Theatre which received its first payment An Lanntair £100,000 Siar on 12 August. As regularly funded Beacon Arts organisations (RFOs) the remainder of Inverclyde £114,000 Centre the award will be added to the CCA: Centre for organisations’ regular cashflow payments Contemporary Glasgow City £214,500 in October and January Arts Glasgow City £100,000 Argyll and Comar £119,000 Bute

2 City of Dance Base £256,200 Edinburgh Repertory Dundee City £480,907 Theatre and Highland £750,000 Cinema Perth and Horsecross Arts £749,900 Kinross Macrobert Arts Stirling £485,213 Centre Pitlochry Festival Perth and £400,000 Theatre Kinross Platform (Glasgow East Glasgow City £75,400 Arts Co) Royal Lyceum City of Theatre £750,000 Edinburgh Company Shetland Arts Shetland Development £247,582 Islands Agency The Barn Aberdeenshire £105,000 The Storytelling City of £213,000 Centre/TRACS Edinburgh Tramway Glasgow City £549,000 Traverse City of £500,000 Theatre Edinburgh Glasgow City £499,849

Table 2: Recipients of Strand Two of the Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund Applicant name & Venue(s) Award Funds Delivered Local Authority name Total Alhambra Theatre Trust - Creative Scotland issued Fife £162,302 Alhambra Theatre contracts on 1 October AngusAlive - The Webster and successful (Arbroath), Reid Hall (Forfar) Angus £92,411 applicants have been and Montrose Town Hall asked to return them to Assembly Theatre Ltd - The City of Creative Scotland no £85,000 Roxy Edinburgh later than 30 October. Ayr Gaiety Partnership – Ayr South Ayrshire £250,000 Gaiety Three-quarters of the Birnam Arts Centre – Birnam Perth and award payment will be £116,563 Arts Centre Kinross issued on receipt of the Brunton Theatre – The Brunton signed contract (and East Lothian £250,000 Theatre

3 Capital Theatres Trust – condition satisfaction, if City of Festival Theatre and Kings £250,000 any). Edinburgh Theatre Castlegate Arts – Aberdeen The final 25% will be Aberdeen City £55,000 Arts Centre released in January Charlies Rennie Mackintosh 2021. Glasgow City £56,000 Society – Queen’s Cross Culture and Leisure NL – Motherwell Concert Hall and North £203,743 Theatre Complex, Airdrie Town Lanarkshire Hall, Bellshill Cultural Centre Duncan Mackinnon Music and Scottish £29,900 Arts Trust – Mac Arts Borders Dunoon Burgh Hall Trust – Argyll and Bute £180,307 Dunoon Burgh Hall East Renfrewshire Culture and East Leisure – Eastwood Park £90,000 Renfrewshire Theatre Eastgate Theatre (Peebles) Ltd Scottish £70,000 – Eastgate Theatre Borders Edinburgh City Council – Usher City of £240,450 Hall Edinburgh Falkirk Community Trust – Falkirk £73,690 Falkirk Town Hall Fife Cultural Trust – Adam Smith Theatre, Lochgelly Fife £230,000 Centre, Rothes Halls, Carnegie Hall Glasgow Life – Glasgow Royal Concert Halls/Fruitmarket and Glasgow City £249,824 City Halls; Kelvingrove Bandstand Glenkens Community and Arts Dumfries and £75,000 Trust - Catstrand Galloway Guild of Players – Dumfries Dumfries and £103,068 Theatre Royal Galloway Leisure and Culture Dundee – Dundee City £25,000 Leith Theatre Trust – Leith City of £138,214 Theatre Edinburgh Linnhe Leisure – Nevis Centre Highland £50,000 Live Argyll – Corran Halls, Victoria Halls, Queens Hall Argyll and Bute £186,000 (Dunoon) Scottish Live Borders – Heart of Hawick £68,147 Borders Lyth Arts Centre – Lyth Arts Highland £97,000 Centre

4 Nairn Community and Arts Centre – Nairn Community and Highland £89,000 Arts Centre Out of the Blue – Out of the City of £67,034 Blue Edinburgh Pickaquoy Centre, Kirkwall – Orkney Islands £150,000 Pickaquoy Centre City of Queen's Hall – Queen’s Hall £175,000 Edinburgh Queen Margaret Union – Glasgow City £26,925 Queen Margaret Union Reconnect – The Regal, West Lothian £25,000 Bathgate Renfrewshire Leisure – Paisley Renfrewshire £71,961 Arts Centre South Lanarkshire Culture and Leisure Ltd – The Town House (Hamilton), Rutherglen Town South £250,000 Hall, Lanark Memorial Hall, Lanarkshire East Kilbride Village Theatre, East Kilbride Arts Centre St Margaret's Trust Braemar – Aberdeenshire £19,970 St Margaret’s Stirling Council – Tolbooth and Stirling £79,913 Albert Halls The Buccleuch Centre – The Dumfries and £25,000 Buccleuch Centre Galloway The Byre (University of St Fife £131,090 Andrews) – The Byre The Dundee Whitehall Theatre – The Dundee Whitehall Dundee City £52,800 Theatre The Garret Mask and Puppet Centre Trust Ltd – The Scottish Glasgow City £50,000 Mask and Puppet Centre West Lothian Leisure – West Lothian £95,000 Howden Park Theatre

TOTAL £4,736,312

Ministerial portfolio: Health and Sport

Oliver Mundell (Dumfriesshire) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of NHS Dumfries and Galloway's plans to deliver the 2020 flu vaccine.

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5 Joe FitzPatrick: Responsibility for delivering the Seasonal Flu Vaccine in 2020-21 rests with Health Boards and Integration Authorities with support from GP practices. The administration of vaccinations provided in General Practices will depend on each Health Board’s individual delivery model. Boards will use the delivery model which is most suitable for their local circumstances, whilst maintaining a Covid-safe environment.

The Scottish Government is working closely with Health Boards and other delivery partners to achieve the aim that everyone eligible for a free flu vaccination will receive an appointment invitation for the programme, which commenced on 1 October.

Ministerial portfolio: Justice and the Law Officers

Monica Lennon (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoners have tested positive for COVID-19 each month, broken down by prison.

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Humza Yousaf: I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

I can confirm that, as at 8 October, there have been 35 individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19. This has been across 8 establishments. Where the number is less than 10, this has been marked so.

Establishment Number of Positive Cases

HMP Addiewell 16 HMP Barlinnie <10 HMP Dumfries <10 HMP Edinburgh <10 HMP Grampian <10 HMP Kilmarnock <10 HMP Low Moss <10 HMP Perth <10

TOTAL 35

Monica Lennon (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government whether it will introduce regular COVID-19 testing in prisons for (a) prisoners and (b) staff.

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Humza Yousaf: I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

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COVID-19 testing is already available for all those living and working in prisons in Scotland presenting with symptoms.

Where an individual in custody displays symptoms of Covid-19, they are required to self-isolate and take a test. NHS Health Boards have tested those in custody who are showing signs of Covid-19 since 25 May 2020/ Early testing of those in custody who present as symptomatic ensures there is no unnecessary requirement to hold someone in isolation for a prolonged period.

In line with public health advice, any SPS staff member who displays symptoms of Covid-19 is also required to self‑isolate and are advised to take a test. SPS staff access to testing was introduced in April 2020 and, as key workers, staff may be tested by local NHS Health Boards or they can access National Testing Centres through the key staff portal.

The Scottish Government is not planning to introduce regular testing of asymptomatic people in prisons. Taking the test when an individual has had no symptoms is often not helpful – it cannot exclude the possibility that the virus is present.

The COVID-19 tests we use in Scotland work by detecting evidence of the virus in a person’s nose or throat sample. These tests cannot tell us whether or not someone is incubating the disease, but only if the virus is present at the time when they are tested. This means that testing is a single point in time assessment of whether a person may be infectious but it cannot tell us whether a person is going to become ill in the future.

Ministerial portfolio: Social Security and Older People

Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (Scottish Liberal Democrats): To ask the Scottish Government whether personal stylists are classed as tradespeople and therefore exempt from the new COVID-19 restrictions.

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Christina McKelvie: The UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities groups businesses according to their economic activity; there is no standardised definition of “tradesperson”. The measures introduced on 22 September did not curtail retail or trade activities that were operating on or before that date.

7 ORAL QUESTIONS ON 8 OCTOBER 2020

First Minister’s Questions

The following questions relating to COVID-19 were asked: 2. Richard Leonard: Question to be taken in Chamber. (S5F-04449) 3. Patrick Harvie: Question to be taken in Chamber. (S5F-04450) 4. Willie Rennie: Question to be taken in Chamber. (S5F-04451) 5. Fulton MacGregor: To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on discussions with the UK Government regarding support for sporting organisations most affected by a delay to the return of spectators. (S5F-04473)

Answers to these, and other First Minister’s Questions, can be found here.

Portfolio Questions

Justice and the Law Officers

The following questions relating to COVID-19 were asked: 1. Sarah Boyack: To ask the Scottish Government what additional support it is providing for frontline policing, in light of the impact of reduced income streams from areas such as football and airports. (S5O-04673) 4. Rhoda Grant: To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting victims of crime during the COVID-19 pandemic. (S5O-04676)

Answers to these, and other Portfolio Questions, can be found here.

8 Government initiated question relating to COVID-19 lodged on 8 October 2020

S5W-32395 Clare Adamson: To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Health and Safety Executive’s COVID-19 School Compliance Checks regarding implementation of School Reopening Guidance.

Written questions relating to COVID-19 lodged on 8 October 2020

S5W-32374 Pauline McNeill: To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the First Minister on 7 October 2020 (Official Report, c. 21), when the £40 million for the hospitality sector will be made available; whether deadlines will be set for businesses to access this, and which types of company will be able to access it. S5W-32384 Stuart McMillan: To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the most recent COVID-19 restrictions are based on NHS board area, rather than local authority area, in light of this approach resulting in Inverclyde being included in the strictest restrictions despite it having a lower infection rate than other areas that are not included. S5W-32388 Alex Cole-Hamilton: To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of the transmission rates of COVID-19 in supermarkets. S5W-32389 Alex Cole-Hamilton: To ask the Scottish Government what support it is making available to beauty salons that are unable to offer facial treatments because of face covering requirements. S5W-32396 Annie Wells: To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £25 million of reserve funding announced on 18 March 2020 from the £350 million of funding for communities during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been allocated and remains in reserve. S5W-32397 Colin Beattie: To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider putting in place a regular COVID-19 testing regime for home carers in order to prevent house-to-house transmission, in light of the stricter measures already in place for care home staff. S5W-32398 Michelle Ballantyne: To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide additional funding to NHS Borders and Scottish Borders Council in the event of a need to bail out the Scottish Borders Integration Joint Board. S5W-32399 Michelle Ballantyne: To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide additional funding to cover COVID-19 spending by the Scottish Borders Integration Joint Board. S5W-32400 Rhoda Grant: To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the environmental health officers in each local authority are female, also broken down by the proportion of those recruited as a result of the additional resources it announced on 22 September 2020. S5W-32401 Rhoda Grant: To ask the Scottish Government how many environmental health officers from each local authority area have been seconded to NHS Test and Protect teams. S5W-32402 Rhoda Grant: To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how the various changes in regulations and restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are being met by environmental health officers, including what additional training has been required.

9 S5W-32403 Rhoda Grant: To ask the Scottish Government what the vacancy level is for environmental health officers in each local authority area, and how this compares with each the last three years. S5W-32404 Rhoda Grant: To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) sickness and (b) absence level is for environmental health officers in each local authority area, and how this compares with each the last three years.

10 Searching for questions and motions

While this report contains only questions and answers relating to COVID-19, answers to all parliamentary questions can be found in daily written answer reports, which are published here.

All parliamentary questions and answers can also be searched for by keyword, MSP asking, Scottish Government Minister answering, as well as by date and other filters, through the advanced search function on the Parliament’s website here.

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