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National Records of Scotland (NRS) has had to reschedule the publication of its statistics on the causes of deaths registered in 2020, including deaths by suicide.

These were originally scheduled for publication in June 2021. However, due to action to clear a backlog of toxicology analyses and an increase in the number of deaths requiring investigation in 2020, there was a delay in receipt of relevant data from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

NRS has now received this data from COPFS and plans to publish these statistics on 17 August 2021. Further information is available on the NRS website: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/future-publications

For completeness, information on both the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 and the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020 is included within the scope of this answer.

General advice on the first Act for stakeholders was published in April 2020.This was subsequently superseded on 12 June 2020 with guidance covering both Acts.That guidance remains on the Scottish Government website . It provides central and local government and public bodies in Scotland an overview of the key measures within the Acts, and is easily available to health and social care partnerships. Explanatory notes were also published for both Acts, which are also accessible on legislation.gov.uk .

Guidance and resources were also supplied on specific areas covered within the Acts. On 31 March 2021, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Supplementary National Child Protection Guidance was issued to a number of senior staff at key agencies involved with child protection, including Integrated Joint Board (IJB) Chief Officers and Chief Executives of NHS Boards. The Guidance was updated and reissued on 16 April, 1 June, 31 August and 22 December 2020. It remains under review and will be updated as necessary.

Guidance on the social care staff support fund was published on 24 June 2020 on the Scottish Government website. It was updated on 15 April 2021. The guidance provides information for social care workers and employers about the Social Care Staff Support Fund.

In terms of resources, following detailed review of the financial position £1.7 billion of additional funding has been provided in 2020-21 to support the Health and Social Care Sector in the response to the pandemic. Allocations during 2020-21 have been made of £561 million for Integration Authorities to support additional COVID costs including funding for sustainability payments to meet forecast costs for 2020-21, in addition to wider social care support, for example for reducing delayed discharges, for loss of income and for other staff costs. The Scottish Government is very clear that we will meet any increasing need for social care as a result of the pandemic, and we will continue to work with Integration Authorities, COSLA and Health Boards to ensure they have the resources required. All of this is over and above the normal funding provided to Integration Authorities.

We recognise the importance of more frequent sharing of data on deaths by suspected suicide to further support responsive local suicide prevention planning.

We are working closely with Public Health Scotland who will roll out processes for timely data sharing over the summer. These processes involve extracting anonymised information on deaths by suspected suicide from Police Scotland records and providing this information on a regular basis to local partners. The frequency of this information sharing is yet to be determined. As this data will be provisional and not subject to the standard verification processes for suicide data, there are presently no plans to publish this.

The Scottish Government published the outcome of its review into Physical Distancing on 22nd June and it is available through the following link: Coronavirus (COVID-19): review of physical distancing in Scotland - June 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Travellers arriving into Scotland from green and amber list countries must use the NHS tests, which can be booked through the UK Government’s booking portal for international travel. These kits are home test PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace.

Travellers arriving into England from green and amber list countries are allowed to book private sector tests.

To date, there are concerns with the flow of data from private sector providers into Public Health England/Public Health Scotland to help with contact tracing and to identify Variants of Concern (VoCs). The UK Government has recently introduced key performance indicators (KPIs) for private providers to meet and is increasing the requirements on such providers to try to address these problems in England.

There are risks associated with the use of private sector tests. In particular, there have been concerns with the data flow from private laboratories into relevant contact tracing systems on either side of the border. There have been examples of it taking 30 days for positive test results to be transferred, making it impossible for contact tracing to be undertaken to interrupt chains of transmission.

We are currently exploring options to allow the use of private sector tests, provided this can be done safely and we can be assured that there aren’t any issues with the flow of data from the testing provider to Public Health Scotland regarding test results, as well as the need for positive test results to be analysed for evidence of any variants of concern. No decision has been made yet on this, however this is under review.

Travellers returning to Scotland from green and amber list countries must use the NHS tests, which can be booked through the UK Government’s booking portal for international travel. These kits are home test PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace.

NHS Scotland has no role in setting the price of the kits. The cost of the kits is set by the UK Government and the process managed through its contract with the travel management company, so our ability to reduce costs unilaterally is limited.

The Scottish Government has remained engaged with the aviation sector throughout the pandemic and will continue to do so, including on testing of international travellers.

Travellers returning from green and amber list countries must use the NHS tests, which can be booked through the UK Government’s booking portal for international travel. These kits are home test PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace. The cost of the kits is set by the UK Government and the process managed through its contract with the travel management company, so our ability to reduce costs unilaterally is limited.

Currently, we are not using private test providers for international travellers arriving into Scotland from green and amber list countries due to concerns about the speed and reliability of the flow of data from private companies. We are having on-going discussion with the UK government on any issues with using private test providers and any risks attached to this. We are keen to understand fully the key performance indicators (KPIs) that have been recently set for these companies and the process should these not be met.

The Scottish Government does not hold a breakdown of the requested figures by local authority area. The annual figures are shown in the following table:

Scotland’s daily PCR test capacity is over 66,000 per day. This is made up of a combination of the aggregate capacity of all testing sites/facilities and distribution/collection services where individuals can get a test, and laboratory capacity to process the samples taken.

As set out in our updated Testing Strategy, published on 22 June, testing is key to quickly identifying and isolating positive cases to break chains of transmission within a community. The testing system is designed to be completely flexible so neither sampling nor laboratory capacity is allocated to a specific local authority area. We work with Public Health Scotland to provide local decision makers with insights and data to target tests where they are most needed. We are also helping to maximise existing testing interventions at the request of local incident management teams (IMT). Local authorities’ testing response will vary as their approaches will be targeted to meet the needs of their communities.

Details of the daily number of tests carried out and number of positive cases in the Glasgow area are available from the Public Health Scotland dashboard.

The Scottish Government holds monthly performance meetings with all NHS Boards, including NHS Grampian. Their last meeting was earlier this month.

Officials also hold weekly cancer performance meetings to monitor the Board’s progress with regards to cancer services.

Recovering the NHS is our immediate focus, and this is why we have committed to publishing an NHS Recovery Plan within the first 100 days.

As part of this, we are investing over £330 million in a network of National Treatment Centres, one of which will be located in NHS Grampian. This will provide additional capacity for elective care.