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Decisions on what sectors and activities to re-open on our route out of lockdown are guided by the principles set out in our Framework for Decision Making. Proposals are technically assessed using the best available evidence and analysis of their potential benefits and harms to health, the economy, and broader society to minimise overall harm and ensure transmission of the virus continues to be suppressed. This assessment process includes oversight of the assessed health risks in different settings by the Chief Medical Officer and input from the other Chief Clinicians as appropriate.

As well as this advice, we also need to weigh up the competing claims of different sectors of society such as schools reopening and their associated benefits to broader health and well-being, the economy and broader society. As you will be aware, the First Minister is undertaking reviews every three weeks, with the latest review and publication of our route was published on Thursday 20 August. This confirmed that the re-opening of gyms would be brought forward to 31 August.

We continue to review the International Border Health regulations on a three weekly basis. We have now concluded our latest review and Ministers have assessed that there remains a requirement for these regulations to remain in place. This decision was relayed to the Scottish Parliament on Monday 10 August via Government Initiated Question (GIQ).

The data and the associated risk assessments behind the country specific exemptions come to us from Public Health England (PHE) and the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC). PHE and the JBC provide the same data to the UK Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. As this data is owned by the UK Government, we are not able to publish the analysis on specific countries and provide detail on why countries are or are not on the exemptions list. I have written to the UK Government asking them to make the data publicly available.

We are continuously keeping countries under review and where there is clear evidence that it is safe to do so, we will add further countries to the exemption list. Likewise, if the evidence suggests an exempt country may provide increased risk, we will not hesitate to reinstate quarantine arrangements

The Scottish Government is concerned by any reports regarding an increase in drug related deaths. We are fully committed to doing everything within our powers to tackle this issue, including supporting the ongoing work of the Drug Death Taskforce.

We work closely with Police Scotland and Public Health Scotland to monitor the number of drug deaths and any arising trends. Arrangements for the sharing of police data is a matter for Police Scotland.

National Records Scotland (NRS) is responsible for publishing the official national statistics on Scottish drug deaths on an annual basis. We are currently awaiting details from them with regards to the date of publication of the 2019 drug death statistics.

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

The SPS deploys a variety of strategic, tactical and technological responses to reduce drug use in Scotland’s prisons and has invested in the development of new technology to detect, deter and reduce the availability and supply of illegal substances. Such security measures include a range of tactical options supported by x-ray machines and body scanners. Rapiscan Itemiser machines are now deployed in every establishment. These machines are effective in the identification of illicit substances, particularly psychoactive substances.

We have an established Technical Support Unit which is resourced to provide technical support to national search operations including specialised equipment to support overt and covert search operations. The SPS works in partnership with Police Scotland to seek prosecutions for any individual seeking to breach security processes and disrupt the good order of establishments.

In 2016-17, the drugs portfolio was transferred from Scottish Government’s Justice Directorate to the Health Directorate, ensuring that problem drug use is viewed through a public health lens. SPS similarly has adopted a dual approach to reducing drug use in prisons, focussing on both health and security measures.

SPS’ Substance Misuse Strategy reflects the aims and objectives of Scottish Government's National Alcohol and Drug Treatment Strategy – Rights, Respect and Recovery. The strategy focuses on robust security systems to divert, disrupt, detect and deter the supply of illicit substances, in addition to the provision of treatment services to encourage prisoners to reject illegal drug culture and support recovery from problematic drug use.

Some prison sites, such as HMP Shotts, have developed peer led Recovery Cafes. These cafes allow people in custody to offer their knowledge and support others in order to identify and challenge their substance misuse problems.

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

The SPS has a zero tolerance approach towards violence. SPS staff are trained to recognise and respond to the precursors of violence and manage any incidents when they do occur.

SPS continues to seek to understand the changing nature of the prison population profile and the subsequent impact on violence, particularly in relation to serious organised crime. SPS implements measures to prevent individuals identified as enemies from being located within the same residential areas. There has been a 2400 % increase in the number of Serious and Organised Crime Group (SOCG) Principals in custody between 2015 and 2019, as well as a significant increase in the number of intervals arrested and then convicted as a result of SOCG.

Violence Reduction meetings take place on a monthly basis across Scottish Prisons to discuss all notable incidents, trends and preventative actions.

CCTV cameras operate within all Scottish prisons to deter violent incidents and assist in any post-incident investigations. Violent incidents are always reported to Police Scotland.

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

Testing of Scottish Prison Service (SPS) staff with Covid-19 symptoms commenced on 5 April 2020.

Accurate as of 3 August 2020, a total of 353 tests have been carried out on SPS staff since testing commenced. Sixty-one (61) staff have tested positive, 283 tested negative, 8 staff were retested due to inconclusive initial test outcomes and one result remains outstanding.

4 SPS staff are currently absent with COVID-19 symptoms, 6 are self-isolating (4 due to caring responsibilities and 2 due to foreign travel quarantine) and 45 are physically distancing.

The information is not centrally held.

Testing for COVID-19 is available for all symptomatic key workers. Further information can be found here:

As I outlined in my written response of 15 June 2020 to question S5W-29808, the law on arrest and police custody was substantially reformed by the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 to provide a modern framework, consistent with the requirements of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 5 secures the right to liberty. The suggestion that all persons arrested for coughing or spitting on police officers during the COVID-19 pandemic, should be detained in custody, would not be consistent with this legal framework.

Lord Advocate’s Guidelines on the Liberation of Accused Persons in the context of COVID-19 have been published and are consistent with the legal framework regarding a person’s right to liberty. The Lord Advocate’s Guidelines enable the detention in custody of accused persons, including those persons accused of assaulting police officers in the manner described during the pandemic, where that is properly justified.

An accused person who has been detained in custody by the police must be brought before the court, which will determine whether or not the accused should continue to be remanded in custody pending trial or granted bail (section 22A of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act)). Thereafter, any decision to review the release, or otherwise, of an accused person from custody is a matter for the court, following an application for bail review under section 30 of the 1995 Act or following a bail appeal under section 32 of the Act. Section 24 of the 1995 Act also gives the Lord Advocate power to admit an accused person to bail.

These are not decisions for the Scottish Government.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) methodological paper on response rates found that a small reduction in the proportion of those taking part has not had a meaningful impact on data quality, although it cannot be assumed that any additional fall would have the same effect. As such we continue to encourage those requested to take part in the SCJS, so that their experiences can help support the ongoing evaluation of trends in crime and the response of Scotland’s justice system.

Any changes to the method of data collection, such as moving to virtual face-to-face surveys, may have an impact on accessibility and inclusion (i.e. excluding those without access to digital technology), response rates and ultimately survey bias. They are also likely to have an impact on the comparability of results to earlier survey years as a respondent may not give exactly the same answer in a virtual interview to what they may have said to an interviewer in person (i.e. the current method of data collection). This is particularly pertinent to the SCJS where sections on more sensitive topics (for example partner abuse) are completed by the respondent themselves using the interviewer's laptop or tablet as part of the main interview. As such changes to the method of collection would need careful consideration, given the value users of these statistics attach to their ability to compare results over different time periods.

Further to this, statisticians are continuing to keep the method of data collection for Scottish Government household surveys under review, particularly given the suspension of face-to-face interviewing from the 17 th March to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. In the short term we continue to speak with public health advisors on when it will be safe to resume face-to-face interviewing for the SCJS, though depending on the length of the suspension we will also consider with the other survey leads and the Office of the Chief Statistician what options there may be for collecting data through alternative means, including any role that online interviews may have.

The Scottish Government is working with partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce to reduce opportunities for criminals to exploit individuals’ concerns generated by the COVID-19 crisis and have been raising awareness of the potential risks.

The effort to raise awareness among the public is being delivered through various means such as Police Scotland’s ‘Shut out Scammers’ campaign and the opportunity for the public to subscribe to Trading Standards Scotland’s Scam Share e-Bulletin. The Scottish Government Cyber Resilience Unit is working with partners including the UK Government, National Cyber Security Centre, Scottish Business Resilience Centre, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and Police Scotland to support a regular bulletin which provides a collated source of trusted actionable cyber threat and scams advice that businesses, charities and umbrella organisations can amplify in their messaging to their staff and the wider public.

The Scottish Government has provided guidance to Scottish local authorities and other public sector organisations giving grants to mitigate the effects of Covid 19 requiring them to ensure that procedures for administering the grants are robust and include due diligence to mitigate fraud.