³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Transport Scotland has not had any direct representations regarding the compatibility of linkspans with the MV Glen Sannox.

However, following the completion of the Brodick terminal in early 2018, a number of representations had been received, a few of which, made comments relating to the linkspan.

In addition, as part of the October 2018 public engagement events for the Ardrossan Harbour Project, a number of representations were received regarding the project proposals, including comments regarding the linkspan. A summary of those engagement events can be found at the following link:-

More recently in October 2019, we have received a number of representations in general about the disruption of the lifeline ferry services during the outages of the linkspans at Gourock and Ardrossan.

Aside from modification to ‘panama leads’, i.e. holes for mooring ropes, no changes have been made to the design of the vessel’s bow.

However, the ‘bulbous bow’ of the vessel, which is under the water during operation, was built and fitted to the vessel by Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd (FMEL) prior to launch, but did not meet the strict tolerances of the Classification Society and its rules. A new (within tolerance) bulbous bow is in the shipyard awaiting the dry docking period when it will be fitted to the vessel, replacing the current bulbous bow.

The Chief Medical Officer and Chairs of both the Royal College of General Practitioners and the British Medical Association wrote to all GP practices to emphasise that general practice should continue to be fully accessible to care home staff and residents. We expect health and care professionals to continue to enter care settings such as care homes to provide care and support which is required, when there is a clinical need to do so, after taking appropriate precautions (PPE).

The Glasgow Regional Test Centre, located at Glasgow Airport is one of the five regional testing centres which are now operational in Scotland as part of the UK Testing Programme.

Testing information for Scotland is published daily which reports the total numbers of tests carried out by the Regional Testing Centres in Scotland and the tests carried out by NHS labs. This data is not broken down by individual test centres.

Testing data is not currently broken down by employment groups. Testing for Health and Social Care Workers is primarily carried out through NHS testing at local NHS facilities.

The Regional Test Centre at Glasgow Airport is part of the UK Testing Programme and provides testing for symptomatic key workers, those with symptoms who are unable to work from home, and those over 65 with symptoms, or their symptomatic household members. On 18 May the First Minister announced a further expansion of those eligible for testing by this route to cover all those over 5 with symptoms. Drive-through testing is only available for those within 90 minute drive from Glasgow Airport. Testing for Health and Social Care Workers is primarily carried out through NHS testing at local NHS facilities.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government.

The COVID-19 data and trend charts for Scotland are published daily and provide a range of information, including the number of care homes notifying cases of COVID-19 and the number of suspected cases of COVID-19 in care homes. The data also includes the daily number of people in hospital with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 but does not include details on how many of these are care home staff.

The link to the daily data update is:

The Scottish Government is co-ordinating and sharing intelligence with UK Government colleagues including, where necessary, to agree on allocation of certain chemical reagents that have a limited global supply. In the case of swabs and other consumables, the Scottish Government is coordinating efforts with NHS Supply Chain and continue to purchase on behalf of NHS Scotland. The Scottish Government is also working with the public and private sector on offers of laboratory facilities and has harnessed the successful approach used to improve PPE supply chain to work on testing supply chain led by the Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation .

The number of deaths reported daily by the Scottish Governments represents any individual who has died and has had a laboratory confirmed report of COVID-19 in the 28 days prior to death.

Further information on deaths involving coronavirus, including presumed deaths in the community is published weekly on the National Records of Scotland website:

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-28927 on 15 May 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at .