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There have been no discussions between the Scottish Government and these organisations on the provision of exams for GP trainees, which are primarily issues for the statutory medical education bodies, the GMC and the Royal College to resolve.

On the recommendation from NHS Education for Scotland, the Scottish Government has however approved interim arrangements to enable those impacted to remain in their training posts in Scotland until solutions are agreed, including providing the estimated costs of £1.1m. There are ongoing discussions between these organisations, including participation from the BMA Junior Doctor Committee, to ensure all trainee GPs in their final year of training can complete their exams as soon as practically possible.

From the outset of the Covid-19 outbreak, the Scottish Government has maintained frequent contact with the General Medical Council, as well as the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Health and Care Professions Council and General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), to discuss and agree the phased roll-out of their Covid-19 temporary registers in exercise of their emergency powers.

In respect of the GMC, whose Registrar already had powers to temporarily register anyone deemed to be a "fit, proper and suitably experienced" person, the Covid-19 temporary register was established on 27 March 2020 for doctors who gave up registration or licence to practise in the previous 3 years. It was expanded on 2 April 2020 to include those who gave up registration in the previous 3-6 years and those who are registered but do not currently have a licence to practise. On 7 April 2020 it was further expanded to include final year medical students by accelerating the annual provisional registration process.

All cohorts have automatically been granted temporary registration on an opt-out basis. All doctors are registered on the Covid-19 register on the basis that there are no open fitness-to-practise investigations, sanctions or conditions on their practice.

The Scottish Government has made no decision on NHS laundry services and will not make a decision until we have addressed the current Covid-19 situation.

The Scottish Government is in regular written and phone contact with Scottish Care, who are the representative body of most care home providers in Scotland, on a range of matters relating to Covid-19 and I regularly speak to their CEO, Dr Donald Macaskill.

The Scottish Government COVID-19 Advisory Group has discussed this issue and is following the research being carried out on a UK-wide basis by SAGE. Further to this, discussions are ongoing with Public Health Scotland on understanding variance in rates of infection and death from Covid-19 by a range of factors, including ethnic minority status. The four CMOs across the UK are also working with Public Health England to explore the impact of COVID-19 on people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

As the member knows our waiting times improvement plan included the delivery of six elective diagnostic and treatment centres. The first of these will open at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

The member will appreciate that in scaling up and repositioning the NHS to cope with the challenge of COVID-19 this work has been slowed down. However as we develop our plans to "restart" the NHS, these centres will be an important part of our consideration. This restart work is underway, clinically led and with the engagement of the Royal Colleges, Board and Unions and mindful of other inter-dependencies such as construction work and transport.

We hope to make the intention and plans for the initial phase public in the near future.

18 May 2020 (Holding Reply Issued 13 May 2020)

I recognise how important the death in service benefit is to NHS staff and that is why it has been agreed with the principal health service unions, including the BMA, RCN and Unison, that all staff affected by COVID-19 as a result of providing frontline services will have access to the death in service benefits available under the terms of the NHS pension scheme, should the worst happen, including provision of a lump sum and survivor’s benefits. This applies to permanent and fixed-term staff. I can advise that NHS Bank and NHS Locum staff are also included. The death in service benefit ensures parity between colleagues and will provide reassurance for staff in these unprecedented times.

I have subsequently sent a letter on 24 April 2020, advising the Health and Sport Committee that my officials are working at pace with NHS Employers and our trade union partners to finalise the scheme's terms and conditions; we aim to publish a Statement of Scheme Particulars by 1 May 2020, at which time I will share the details with the committee.

Daily statistics published by the Scottish Government have always included the number of Covid-19 deaths (where COVID-19 has been confirmed from a lab positive test result) in all settings of death, including in hospitals, care homes, homes or other settings. This was in contrast to the original daily reporting of deaths in England which applied to hospital settings only.

Scottish Government statistics are published on the Scottish Government website each day at 2pm.

In addition to the daily statistics, the National Records of Scotland (NRS) also publishes a weekly report on the number of deaths where there was a confirmed or suspected case of Covid-19. These include a breakdown of deaths by setting.

The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 has established a system of carers’ rights designed to listen to carers; improve consistency of support; and help sustain caring relationships by protecting carers’ health and wellbeing. This includes each carer’s right to a personalised plan to identify what is important to them and set out any support they might need.

Ministers and COSLA have written to local authorities encouraging them to prioritise additional carer support in their local plans for responding to the pandemic. This is on top of the extra £11.6 million for carer support in the 2020-21 budget.

We are working alongside key organisations to ensure carers have the advice they need to help protect themselves and their loved ones during the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as advice on how to access support and changes to carers’ benefits carers. We have also established a £500,000 fund to help local carer services adapt to providing advice and emotional support remotely. This includes advice on accessing personal protective equipment (PPE). We have also made changes to our £3 million Short Breaks Fund so that carers can access breaks that are suitable at this time.

We support around 80,000 unpaid carers in Scotland with Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Allowance Supplement. Through the Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill 2, we propose to make an extra payment of £230.10 to Carer’s Allowance recipients in Scotland this June, on top of Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

We understand that many carers are under additional emotional pressure at present. We have provided an additional £3.8 million to begin to increase the capacity of NHS 24’s telephone and online services, including making the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub available 24/7 and expanding the Breathing Space helpline and web support service.

A webpage has been published on the Scottish Government website which provides specific information for unpaid carers during the COVID-19 outbreak: .

We are considering how best to bring all services back on stream, but in doing so we must be very careful that we do not do anything that might compromise the fragile gains that we are making in containing Covid-19.

We recently published which sets out the challenges we face and how we will approach them. However, our priority at this time is to preserve life and reduce harm.

The current restrictions remain in place and we need to stick with them for now, in order to be able to relax things in future. Independent podiatrists who are still practicing should continue to adhere to national Covid-19 guidance and the guidance produced by their professional bodies.