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The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested. Information on the discharge destination of delayed patients was published for the first time as part of Public Health Scotland's April Delayed Discharge census. However, details on specific homes patients were discharges to does is not collected.

The Scottish Government's testing strategy has from the outset been informed by the best available evidence for Scotland as advised by senior clinicians and public health experts. The First Minister announced on 18 May 2020 that the eligibility for testing was being widened so that everyone in Scotland aged 5 or over who has symptoms can now access testing.

Tests provide a point in time assessment of whether someone has the infection when the test was taken. It cannot indicate whether someone is incubating the disease, and therefore may go on to develop it after a test is undertaken. Current evidence suggests that widespread asymptomatic testing may be of limited utility in the wider population, and should be prioritised in contexts of high risk and complex community settings, such as care homes.

Scottish Government policy is consistent with the recommendations of the World Health Organisation that all suspected cases be tested for COVID-19 according to WHO case definitions and that, faced with community transmission over large areas of the country, prioritisation will be required to assure the highest public health impact of reducing transmission using available resources. The guidance is available here:

We have moved to a more proactive method of deployment, so that mobile testing units support testing in priority areas, in particular in care homes and where there is an outbreak situation. Priority will be given to those areas with the greatest need in the first instance.

We have engaged extensively with businesses, business organisations, and local authorities, to understand progress on the grant schemes, and identify and address where there are gaps in support, including gaps in support schemes provided by UK Government.

As a consequence, we have created specific new funds, as part of our wider package of business support measures, which relieve the hardship of individuals, small firms and the newly self-employed. These are unique to Scotland and not available in the rest of the UK. We have also expanded the small business and retail, hospitality and leisure grant schemes to provide additional support to ratepayers with more than one property and open the scheme to applications from businesses which occupy shared premises.

We also continue to work closely with local authorities to understand what further data can be supplied to assist in any future evaluation of our business grant schemes.

No portfolio budgets are being cut in the Summer Budget Revision and all reprioritisation amounts within portfolios are set out in the detailed tables within the budget revision document. All funds are being redeployed to support the industries and infrastructure necessary to support the Scottish Economy.

All of the £255m reprioritisation amounts relate to areas where services have experienced reduced demand over the lockdown period and so funds have been redeployed to service providers to best support the Scottish Covid-19 response.

For example, £105m that was originally earmarked for domestic efficiency loans will now be used to provide funding for SME housebuilders with liquidity issues as a result of the temporary closure of housebuilding sites.

I am in no doubt that significant budget challenges lie ahead and work is underway to ensure that Scottish Government resources are targeted at stimulating a safe, swift and sustainable recovery for our public services and our economy.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of New Lanark as one of Scotland’s six World Heritage Sites, and we are committed to doing everything we can to ensure it can continue to thrive.

My officials attended two online meetings on Friday 29 th May, hosted by Aileen Campbell MSP as the local Clydesdale constituency MSP, to discuss its situation including concerns surrounding the recent potential redundancy announcements, and its financial situation. We have offered the Scottish Government’s full support to work alongside the Trust and other partners to address these issues including consideration of specific short-term funding needs.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES), our lead public body for the historic environment, and Scottish Enterprise are also supporting the New Lanark Trust to conduct a strategic review of its business operations which is designed to ensure the long-term viability and sustainability of this important asset.

Contractors delivering capital investment and maintenance programmes for Scottish Water operate under contracts that use the recognised New Engineering Contracts published by the Institution of Civil Engineers. These contracts include provisions relating to costs when unforeseen events occur. The shutdown as a result of COVID-19 is such an event.

During the COVID-19 crisis, contractors have made use of the UK Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme where their employees have been unable to work which has mitigated the cost to Scottish Water during the COVID-19 shutdown. Scottish Water is currently working with its supply chain to establish and ensure only properly due monies are paid in line with the aforementioned contracts and taking account of the Job Retention Scheme. It will take some time to complete assessments as the supply chain staff return from furlough but an early view is a cost of £9-15 million in total for the months of April and May. These costs will be subject to a full commercial audit and scrutiny when they are fully presented.

(a) Care Inspectorate inspectors discuss infection control measures during weekly scrutiny and support calls with care services, and more frequently as required.

(b) Information collected from a Care Inspectorate weekly survey of care services is shared with the NHS NSS Triage Hub to provide an overview of any clinical consumables and PPE shortages across Scotland, to help resources to be appropriately directed.

(c) If there are to be admissions to a care home with a COVID-19 outbreak this must be discussed with local Public Health teams. The Care Inspectorate shares Health Protection Scotland (HPS) guidance updates when this is published, with all care services via national provider updates, Care Inspectorate website and social media.

In addition to the work undertaken by the Care Inspectorate, Scottish Government Care Home Action Group are pulling data from across the system, including Directors of Public Health, to provide the necessary assurances and drive national action.

The Care Inspectorate has changed their operating model in response to COVID-19 by establishing:

• daily notifications for suspected cases and deaths in care services
• a new system of red, amber green notifications for services to indicate if they were experiencing staffing difficulties
• a twice per day Gold command group and once daily Silver command group, deciding what action is required based on the intelligence gathered
• collaboration with Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)/NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Hub to successfully route staff to services experiencing staffing difficulties
• training of inspectors on the use of 'Near Me' to utilise real time video footage to examine the circumstances within services, to provide further assurance, and to ensure that IPC and PPE are adequate in each service.

In common with other UK regulators and counterparts in Ireland, the Care Inspectorate took the decision early in our response to the pandemic to scale down, recognising that this may put an unnecessary burden on the care sector, may contribute to spreading COVID-19, and put their inspectors at risk.

Additionally part of the continuous review in their response to the Covid-19 outbreak, the Care Inspectorate has put in place a programme of increased unannounced site inspections.

The Care Inspectorate has been very active in monitoring services and has been making regular contact with care homes and their parent companies, often daily. They are also actively working with Health Protection Scotland, local Public Health teams, Health and Social Care Partnerships, local authorities and others in order to monitor, direct and guide services.

The Care Inspectorate changed their operating model in response to Covid-19 by establishing:

• daily notifications for suspected cases and deaths in care services
• a new system of red, amber green notifications for services to indicate if they were experiencing staffing difficulties
• a twice per day Gold command group and once daily Silver command group, deciding what action is required based on the intelligence gathered
• collaboration with Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)/NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Hub to successfully route staff to services experiencing staffing difficulties
• training of inspectors on the use of 'Near Me' to utilise real time video footage to examine the circumstances within services, to provide further assurance

Under the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No2) Act 2020 the Care Inspectorate has new duties to report on inspections and deaths in care homes. These reports will be laid in Parliament accordingly.

Under the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No2) Act 2020 the Care Inspectorate has new duties to report on inspections and deaths in care homes. These reports will be laid in parliament accordingly.

In March 2019, 110 inspections were carried out at care homes. In April 2019, 99 inspections were carried out at care homes. In March 2020, 71 inspections were carried out at care homes. In April 2020, no inspections were carried out at care homes, but the work noted above was undertaken.

The 2014 Future of Residential Care for Older People in Scotland report made a number of important recommendations to help shape the future of the care home sector in Scotland. The Residential Care Task Force Implementation Group was established to take forward the report recommendations. Whilst many of the recommendations made were taken forward and were implemented relatively quickly, there were some longer term recommendations which required considerable development, planning and potentially funding. At the time the Taskforce anticipated that the integration of health and social care would open up opportunities for the care home sector to be developed through strategic commissioning based on local need, with an increase in intermediate care in care homes and at home, alongside a greater provision of extra-care housing as an alternative to care homes. In this context a number of significant recommendations, including the development of strategic commissioning plans, were made which are now being implemented by our Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs). Some of the most significant recommendations were around support for the workforce, in particular with the implementation of the real living wage for all social care workers. As a result of this work, the Scottish Government has since October 2016 provided resources to enable all social care workers to be paid the real living wage for day time hours and that this was later extended to overnight support. However work to address the workforce challenges doesn’t end there. The Scottish Government has committed to working with national and local partners to take forward the recommendations set out in the Fair Work Convention’s Social Care Sector 2019 report to improve fair work practices for the workforce. Having reflected on progress within the care home sector five years on from the residential care taskforce report, the Scottish Government launched the adult social care reform programme last year along with COSLA. As part of that programme, the Scottish Government had started, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, to look at ways to improve care home sustainability. While the current focus needs to be on supporting the care home sector through the COVID-19 crisis, it will be important to reflect on the lessons learned during this pandemic and identify what that means for the future of care home provision.