New fund to help education recovery from COVID-19.
Scottish Government funding for youth work is being increased by more than 30% to recognise the vital role the sector will play in making up any ground lost in learning during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
A newly created £3 million Youth Work Education Recovery Fund will be targeted at those communities and young people who need the most support, bringing Government spending in the youth work sector this year to at least £12.5 million.
The Recovery Fund will be administered by YouthLink Scotland, the national youth work agency. The fund is open for applications from Community Learning and Development services that help young people engage and re-engage with learning. Submissions should support partnership work between November 2020 and the end of August 2021.
Further and Higher Education Minister Richard Lochhead said: “Scotland’s vibrant youth work sector plays a crucial role in supporting children and young people’s well-being, and in closing the attainment gap.
“Throughout lockdown we have seen the sector rise to the challenge of providing services remotely, supporting some of the most vulnerable young people across Scotland.
“This £3 million investment in youth work will help education recovery from COVID-19 by providing additional targeted services for young people, where they are needed the most.”
Tim Frew, CEO of YouthLink Scotland, said: “This fund presents an opportunity for the sector to continue to innovate and develop new models of practice in collaboration across the public and voluntary sectors, alongside our partners in schools and colleges.
“Young people across Scotland have shown extraordinary resilience. They have had to put up with so much, missing out on many things that we often take for granted, and as they face the uncertainty of what comes next we will be there to support their educational recovery. In supporting them to achieve, the youth work sector can demonstrate its unique role in closing the poverty-related attainment and achievement gap.”
Background:
More information on the Fund and its application process with YouthLink Scotland.
Most people are happy with their neighbourhood, feel a strong sense of belonging and think their local heritage is well cared for, according to the latest Scottish Household Survey.
Concern about the environment has continued to grow, particularly among young people – the survey found that last year 69% of 16 to 24-year-olds agreed climate change was an immediate and urgent problem, up from 38% in 2013.
Meanwhile, more people were online than ever before, including older people, with 66% of over-60s now using the internet. However, the most common cultural activity was reading, with 62% of adults having read in the year before the survey was undertaken.
94% of adults said their neighbourhood was a good or fairly good place to live, while 78% said they felt a strong sense of belonging there
satisfaction with local schools rose to 73% from 71% in 2018, while satisfaction with public transport increased from 65% to 68%
86% of adults agreed that it was important for Scotland’s heritage to be well looked after, with 69% agreeing that the heritage of their local area was already well cared for
90% were culturally engaged, either by attending or visiting a cultural event or place, or by participating in a cultural activity
Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell said: “I am pleased so many people have a strong sense of belonging to their neighbourhood, which contributes towards making Scotland a warm and friendly nation where everyone is welcome.
“Of course, this survey predates the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, but that sense of community spirit was vital during lockdown when we were all required to work together to help suppress the spread of the virus.
“The rise in digital connectivity will also have been hugely beneficial under lockdown, with more people than ever able to use the internet to buy essential supplies, keep in touch with friends or take part in cultural activities.
“As we set out in our Programme for Government, we are determined that our recovery from the crisis will be a green one. I share the concerns of so many people that climate change is an urgent problem, and through the 2019 Climate Change Act the Scottish Government enshrined in law its commitment to a just transition to net zero – in which wellbeing, fair work and social justice are prioritised and no-one is left behind.”
The Scottish Household Survey is the largest social survey of people across Scotland, giving them an opportunity to provide information to government on their experiences, views, attitudes and behaviours.
The survey has run since the outset of devolution in 1999. It provides robust data on a wide range of different topics, including housing, neighbourhoods, sport and physical activity, internet use/digital engagement, views on local services, culture, the environment, and volunteering, at both national and local authority level.
This year 10,580 households took part in the survey.
Comparable survey data from 1999 to 2019 has been published on an interactive Data Explorer. For the first time national and local data has been published on the same day.
Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House yesterday (Tuesday 15 September):
Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us again today.
I will start with the usual run through of the daily statistics with apologies in advance. Parts of my briefing today are a little bit technical because it’s about how we report figures and while it might seem a bit difficult to follow today, what I’m going to report to you, particularly around people in hospital, is in the interest of making these figures more accurate and more transparent as we go into the next phase of tackling the pandemic.
But I can report firstly today, that the total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 267. This represents 3.6% of people newly tested.
101 of those cases were in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 59 were in in Lanarkshire, 53 were in Lothian and 13 were in Ayrshire and Arran.
The remaining 41 were spread amongst the other seven mainland health board areas.
However to be clear, and this is the point I want to stress today, these, as indeed our daily figures always are, are test results that were reported yesterday.
Because of the backlog in the UK wide system that I referred to yesterday, this figure will include – a bit more than it normally would – results from swabs taken over the past few days.
We hope that the backlog of the past few days will have worked its way through the system shortly.
And just to be clear, to reassure you, for the purposes of our trend analysis, tests are looked at by day of the sample, not just by date of reporting, to ensure that we are tracking the increase in cases accurately. From that analysis of course, right now unfortunately, we do know that cases are rising .
Now as I said yesterday, I do have a concern about the capacity constraints right now within the UK wide system – for Scotland in recent days, just to be clear, this has not been an issue of access to testing slots, regional testing centres or mobile testing units but instead it’s been one of access to sufficient lighthouse laboratory processing.
And it has been this that has led to a backlog in the system and longer turnaround times for tests than we want to be the case.
Now as this is a UK wide system, we are not able to resolve this on our own. And the issues are impacted by demand elsewhere in the UK.
To that end, I had a conference call, a constructive conference call, last night with Matt Hancock, UK Health Secretary and Dido Harding, who is head of the UK testing system, to seek firstly assurances that Scotland is and will continue to get fair access to the UK wide laboratory capacity and also to discuss how we can resolve these issues. I hope to see improvement in next few days, but of course I will continue to provide updates.
I also, and this takes me into the slightly technical bit of the briefing, I want to provide some context before providing today’s update for the number of people in hospital with Covid.
Now, if you cast your mind back a couple of weeks now I think if you are one of the regular viewers of this briefing, I indicated then we were looking at how we report on numbers of people in hospital.
Under that measure, the one we have been using up until now, lots of people are classified as being Covid patients, even if they have recovered from Covid and are now being treated for a condition that is unrelated to it.
That old measure was providing accurate information at the peak the epidemic of this first phase back in the year when there were 1,500 Covid patients in hospital.
But as the pandemic has progressed, we have been reporting a higher number of hospital cases than is probably justified and that’s the issue I alluded to a couple of weeks ago.
For example in late August, Scotland officially accounted for almost one third of the hospital patients with Covid in the UK – despite having one twelfth of the UK’s population, and a relatively low incidence of the virus at that stage.
To try to ensure we are no longer counting patients who no longer really have Covid, we are from now, and I’ll report under the new measurement today, but then regularly from tomorrow, we’re moving to a new definition.
From now on, we will only count patients who first test positive for Covid during their current stay in hospital, or in the two weeks before their admission.
In addition, we will stop classifying them as Covid patients, for statistical purposes after 28 days in hospital – or 28 days after the date of their positive test, whichever is later.
This new measure will be an improvement on the old one – but it is important for me to point out that it will not be absolutely perfect.
The effects of Covid sometimes require hospital stays of longer than 28 days, and so a small number of patients with Covid may not be captured by the measure I’ve just outlined there
I have therefore asked Public Health Scotland to develop analysis about patients who unfortunately end up spending longer in hospital.
But overall, this new measure will give us a better picture both of the current situation in hospitals, and crucially, given the phase of the pandemic we are going into, it will be more sensitive to the changes in hospital admissions caused by new cases. So it will enable us to more accurately reflect and report any increase in hospital admissions over the next period.
So, under the old measure, I would be telling you, and I am going to tell you, that 262 patients are in hospital. That is two fewer than yesterday.
But that is the last time I’m going to give you that old measure, instead I’m going to move to the new and more accurate measure and I will use that solely from tomorrow onwards and under that measure, as of today there are 48 patients in hospital under that more narrow but more accurate measurement and we will be able to track it better now the increase in hospital admissions from here on in.
And using the new definition, I can report, there are six people are in intensive care. Under the old definition I would have been reporting seven in intensive care so clearly the change in measurement doesn’t have the same impact towards numbers in intensive care as it does on broader hospital numbers. .
And finally, in terms of my daily statistics update, I regret to have to report that in the past 24 hours, one additional death has been registered of a patient who first tested positive over the previous 28 days.
That means that the total number of deaths, under this daily measurement, is now 2,500.
That total serves again to remind us of the impact of this virus and why we can never, ever be complacent about the risks it poses and I want again to pass on my condolences to everybody who has lost a loved one – including of course everyone who is grieving as a result of the death that was registered yesterday.
There are a couple of other issues I want to address before Jason Leitch and I take questions from the media as normal.
The first is just to report here, we made this public last night but I thought it was worth reporting, that we had a meeting yesterday as I indicated earlier yesterday we would, to discuss the current position in Greater Glasgow and Clyde
And the good news is, that early indications suggest that the restrictions in place in Glasgow City, East and West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire might be helping to slow down the increase in new cases. So that at this stage is positive.
But the number of new cases in these parts of Greater Glasgow and Clyde remains very high and is still increasing, all be it, we think, at a slower rate than would’ve been the case without these restrictions being in place. So taking all of that into account and the local authorities for these areas were present at the meeting yesterday. We agreed that the existing restrictions should remain in place for a further week and then they will be reviewed again at that stage.
That means people in these areas, Glasgow City, East or West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire should not visit other households at all.
Those same restrictions now also apply as of last Friday, in North and South Lanarkshire,
In all of these seven local authority areas, you should not host someone in your home – unless it is for essential care purposes. And you should not visit someone else in their home – again unless it’s for care purposes or delivery of shopping to a venerable or elderly person and that is regardless of where they live. So I live in Glasgow City, I can’t have people in my home but equally I can’t go and visit my parents for example, who live in Ayrshire and Arran which is not one of these affected areas.
The second issue I want to cover today relates to the Test and Protect service.
We are aware that some fake callers are pretending to work for Test and Protect , and are trying to con people by claiming that payment is needed for a test.
Sadly, this reminds us that there are always a small number of people, a tiny minority , but never the less they’re there, who will try to exploit any situation they can to defraud people. And it is truly and utterly despicable particularly at this time of crisis that we are living though.
But in light of it, I wanted to take the opportunity today to remind you and ask you to remind others that you know, that Covid tests are free, and will always be free for those who need them.
Nobody from Test and Protect will ever ask you for financial information –they will never ask you for your bank or credit card details – and they will never try to sell you anything.
The only thing Test and Protect staff will ask you about, is where you’ve been and details of the people you have been in contact with.
Genuine contact tracers will often also first send you a text to let you know that you will shortly receive a call from NHS Scotland.
Callers will always introduce themselves and state the reason for their call. They will know your name. They will ask you for details of people you have come into contact with, in a relevant time period. They will tell you that you will receive further information by e-mail or post.
And they will always call from the same number – 0800 030 8012 – and they will give you the option of calling back on that number if you need to verify the service.
There is a lot of useful information about this on the Coronavirus sections of the Trading Standards Scotland website, and the Advice Direct Scotland website.
You can report any concerns about calls you have received to Advice Direct Scotland. And if you are unfortunate enough to have been the victim of a scam, or an attempted scam, you should contact the police on 101.
Fundamentally, if a person claiming to be a contact tracer is asking about things that aren’t necessary – in particular your bank details or computer passwords – then put the phone down straight away because they are not a legitimate contact tracer .
As I mentioned earlier, if you do get phoned by a legitimate contact tracer you have the option of phoning them back – on 0800 030 8012 – if you want to verify the call.
Genuine contact tracers will only ever ask about your movements, and details of the people you have been in contact with. This is a small minority of people, hopefully it won’t happen to any of you watching, but I thought it was important to take the opportunity to stress what will and will not be asked of you if you do get one of these calls, so that together we can make sure these people who attempt theses scams, these despicable people don’t get anywhere in Scotland.
The final point I want to make just to round off, is to remind you of the new rules which came into force yesterday, and of our other important public health guidance.
As you should all know, unless you live in one of the areas I’ve already spoken about where stricter restrictions are in place, no more than six people can now meet up together – and those six people can come from no more than two households.
Children under the age of 12, do not count as part of the total of six, but they do count towards the total for households. I said on Friday I would look at further advice on whether we could give greater flexibility for children and I hope to give the outcome of that later this week.
That rule – six people and two households – applies indoors and outdoors: in homes, pubs and restaurants, and in outdoor spaces such as parks and private gardens.
So please make sure that you are not breaching those limits.
This step – limiting the number of people and households you interact with – is a tough one and it’s really not an easy one or a welcome one at all. But it is a really vital step in helping us to keep the virus under control by limiting the interactions that we know are most likely to cause it to spread.
Please also, if you haven’t already done so, download the Protect Scotland app if you can. I know that last time I looked this morning 950,000 of you have already done that, but we want as many people as possible to do so.
It is very quick and easy to do. It’s a simple but very powerful way of all of us as individuals helping the country collectively.
And as always, and this will be my final comment, remember all the other things and we all need to do to try to minimise the risk of Covid spreading and all of that of course is encapsulated in FACTS. The five golden rules to try to minimise the spread.
• Face coverings should be worn in enclosed spaces • Avoid crowded places. • Clean your hands and hard surfaces regularly. • keep Two metres away from other households • and Self isolate, and book a test, if you have symptoms.
So thank you for bearing with me though what I know was a bit of a technical briefing today. Occasionally they will be like this because we are trying as we are go through the pandemic to make sure that we are reporting information in a clear, accurate and as transparent way as possible.
As we go through different phases sometimes that means changing definitions that we have used previously and so explaining that takes a bit of time and hopefully over the next period, these things will become much clearer for all of us.
A public consultation will gather final views on proposed new legislation for the regulation of short-term lets.
The Scottish Government’s proposals include a mandatory licensing scheme to ensure that all short-term lets are safe and to address issues faced by neighbours.
The regulations, if passed by Parliament, would come into force by April 2021. These would also give councils powers to manage pressures created by the use of whole properties as short-term lets.
Welcoming the launch of the consultation, Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said: “Short-term lets can offer people a flexible and affordable accommodation option, and they have contributed positively to Scotland’s tourism industry and local economies across the country.
“However, we know that in certain areas, particularly tourist hot spots, high numbers of these arrangements can cause problems for neighbours and make it harder for people to find homes to live in.
“The views and evidence from our previous consultation and research showed broad consensus for some form of regulation. Our proposals will allow local authorities and communities facing the most severe pressures to take action to manage those more effectively from next year.
“I believe our proposals for a licensing scheme and short-term let control areas are evidence-based and right for Scottish circumstances.
“We will be engaging with stakeholders on our detailed proposals over the next four weeks. I am confident that our proposals will allow local authorities to ensure a safe, quality experience for visitors, whilst protecting the interests of local communities.”
Holyrood’s Finance & Constitution Committee has launched a call for views on the UK Government’s controversial Internal Market Bill, which was was introduced at Westminster on 9 September.
According to its explanatory notes, the purpose of the Bill is to “preserve the UK internal market, providing continued certainty for people and businesses to work and trade freely across the whole of the UK.”
All parts of the Bill trigger the need for legislative consent from the Scottish Parliament – but the Scottish Government has indicated it will not recommend that consent be given.
The Finance & Constitution Committee is therefore seeking views from all interested organisations and individuals to help inform its parliamentary scrutiny of the Bill and of the Scottish Government’s legislative consent memorandum.
The deadline for submissions is 24 September 2020.
Finance & Constitution Committee Convener Bruce Crawford MSP said:“The creation of a UK internal market and how it operates will impact on a wide range of Scottish organisations, including Scottish businesses – especially food production and agriculture, environmental and consumer organisations, as well as the third and voluntary sector and the wider public.
“It is vital therefore that we hear from people who are going to be affected by this Bill, but we only have until 24 September to do so. This is time critical.”
The Committee is scrutinising the UK Internal Market Bill as well as the forthcoming Legislative Consent Memorandum.
In order to inform its scrutiny, the Committee is seeking views, especially in the following areas:
Creative Scotland has published details of the Scottish Government’s Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund, which forms part of the £31.5m emergency funding for culture announced by the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, on 28 August.
The £15 million Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund aims to provide emergency support to organisations that provide opportunities for cultural engagement and have been unable to trade due to the impact of Covid-19. Its primary aim is to protect jobs and to support the sustainability of organisations threatened by insolvency in the short to medium term
Eligibility criteria and guidelines for applying to the Fund have now been published ahead opening for applications on Thursday 17 September.
Culture Secretary, Fiona Hyslop said: “It’s been an extremely difficult time for the culture sector this year. We’ve done everything we can to alleviate some of the immediate challenges but we know many businesses will continue to struggle until they can fully reopen.
“The Culture Organisations and Venue Recovery Fund will aid a range of cultural businesses and help them weather the most critical challenges they face. I’m grateful to Creative Scotland for the pace they’ve worked at to develop the funding and its distribution.”
Iain Munro, CEO, Creative Scotland said: “The challenges presented to the culture and creative sector by the Covid-19 pandemic are only too real and are not going to go away quickly or easily. That’s why this additional emergency funding from the Scottish Government is so welcome.
“Our top priority is the delivery of these funds to the sector as quickly as possible and the launch today of the Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund is an important step in providing much needed support. While we know that this funding won’t be able to meet every challenge, it will help to protect jobs and support the sustainability of organisations wherever possible.”
The Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund is the second of five new emergency funds from Scottish Government being delivered by Creative Scotland as follows:
The £3.5m Independent Cinemas Recovery and Resilience Fund, announced on Thursday 3 September, is helping to secure the survival of Scotland’s independent cinemas, enabling them to re-establish and adjust their business models in response to Covid-19. The fund opens for applications on Monday 14 September.
The £5m Creative Freelancer Hardship Fund will address the current financial hardship being felt by creative freelancers who normally work in the culture sector but whose work has been impacted by Covid-19. We will be issuing an open call for partner organisations to help us distribute this fund on Friday 11 September
The £5m Sustaining Creative Practice Fund will support artists to continue developing new creative work that will make a significant contribution to Scotland’s recovery from COVID-19. This includes £1.5 million for the Culture Collective programme, mentioned in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government, supporting organisations employing freelance artists to work in and with communities across Scotland. The remaining £3.5m has been added to Creative Scotland’s existing open fund which is open for applications from individuals now.
The £3m Youth Arts Fundwill ensure creative opportunities for children and young people continue to exist across Scotland despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Details of this fund are currently being finalised and will be announced week commencing 14 September.
The previously announced £2.2m Grassroots Music Venue Sustainability Fund closed for applications on 3 September. The fund has received 97 applications and awards will be announced on 22 September.
The £5m open call element of the Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund closed for applications on 27 August. The fund received 42 applications and awards will be announced by 24 September.
Updates on all emergency funds will be published regularly on the Creative Scotland website and publicised through media and social media communications.
Connecting Scotland programme funding to expand to £43 million.
Organisations that work with digitally excluded families and young people in care are being encouraged to get involved with a programme aiming to get more people online.
Funding for Connecting Scotland, which aims to give low income families and individuals an internet device as well as twelve months unlimited data and technical support has now reached £43 million. This follows the announcement of an additional £23 million as part of Programme for Government earlier this month.
With around a hundred applications already received for the current phase of the programme, local authorities and third sector bodies have another three weeks to seek support for the families and care leavers they work with, with further details on how the additional funding will work expected next month.
Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell said: “The pandemic has emphasised the importance of digital connectivity – for education, for access to public services and online shopping, and for staying in touch with friends and family. However, it has also heightened the impact of digital exclusion.
“Over the next 15 months, the Connecting Scotland programme will make a significant contribution towards closing that digital divide by helping many more households to benefit from technology through issuing devices along with offers of support and data.
“By the end of next year it will have brought approximately 50,000 people online, underpinned by an additional £23 million Scottish Government funding. I will be able to announce details of the programme’s next phase, including the groups of people that I believe will be particularly able to benefit in the coming weeks.
“However, it is absolutely crucial that anyone who could benefit from the scheme has the chance to do so which is why I hope local authorities and our third sector partners will help identify even more people needing this kind of support.”
Organisations can apply for phase 2 up to 11am on 5 October here.
All of Scotland’s 32 local authorities and more than 25 individual community regeneration projects will receive a share of £30 million of new investment for regeneration and town centres.
The funding will be available immediately through the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) and the Town Centre Fund (TCF), both delivered in partnership between Scottish Government and COSLA.
Edinburgh’s share of the Town Centre Fund is £954,000.
The Govanhill Baths refurbishment in Glasgow, Midmills in Inverness, which will support creative industries and cultural social enterprises in the Highlands; and the Mossedge Centre, which will be a multi-purpose facility for use by the surrounding communities in Linwood Renfrewshire are among the community led regeneration projects that will benefit from this funding.
Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell said: “We want to go beyond rebuilding – to refresh and reform and help drive the social and economic renewal necessary to achieve the best future for Scotland.
“This further £30 million capital funding for regeneration and town centres will stimulate local construction across Scotland and support disadvantaged areas in the recovery.
“Communities are best placed to identify specific needs and aspirations and this regeneration funding enables the delivery of a wide range of locally-developed projects to be made into reality.
“Our places must work for our communities, and the Town Centre Funding will build on the success of last year’s fund. With it, local authorities will be able to drive forward projects that help people live better locally and reduce their carbon footprint while driving footfall to local businesses.”
COSLA Environment and Economy Spokesperson Cllr Steven Heddle said: “The additional challenges facing Scotland’s most vulnerable communities due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic means there has never been a more important time to strengthen the economic, social, and physical wellbeing of our places.
“This additional funding for the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund and Town Centre Fund will support the regeneration aspirations of our communities, and also accelerate the delivery of projects to support the recovery, tackle disadvantage and deprivation and support jobs.”
Linwood Community Development Trust will receive £400,000 from the RCGF this year to bring forward completion of the Mossedge Centre.
Trust Manager Kirsty Flannigan said: “Complemented by the existing 3G pitch, the Mossedge Centre will provide a resource for all within the local community, including a purpose-built home for our community run Roots Shop.
“Now we see the finishing line in sight, and can look forward to the post-pandemic future with confidence, knowing that this project will provide a legacy for present and future generations of the Linwood community.”
Scotland Secretary Alister Jack’s has written to the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, about the UK Internal Market Bill:
11 September 2020
Dear Nicola,
I am writing to correct the false claims you have made about the UK Government’s Internal Market Bill, introduced to Parliament on Wednesday, 9 September.
As we’ve been clear, the Bill will protect and strengthen our internal market which is so vital to Scotland’s economy with 60 per cent of our exports, worth over £50 billion per year, going to other parts of the United Kingdom.
It will also create new opportunities for the UK Government, working with the Scottish Government, local authorities and other partners, to invest in Scotland.
That’s why I have described the Bill as a win-win for Scotland.
It is good for business, jobs and consumers. It will boost our economy and help us rebuild from the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bill has now begun its passage through Parliament and will be debated at length in the weeks ahead.
In accordance with the Sewel Convention, the UK Government will seek a Legislative Consent Motion so the Scottish Parliament, also, will have the opportunity to consider our proposals.
Before this takes place, I wish to correct a series of assertions you have made about the Bill.
1. You have said the Bill will lead to a ‘race to the bottom’ in terms of food standards and environmental protections. That is emphatically not the case.
The UK is a world leader in food and environmental standards and that will not change.
Also, as you know, the UK Government and all devolved administrations have agreed a common framework on food and feed safety and hygiene law which clearly sets out the ‘rules and regulations related to the production and distribution of food and feed’. Guaranteeing our shared commitment to high standards across the UK.
The UK Government is proud of our record and keenly aware of the premium our high standards place on UK goods in overseas markets.
2. Similarly, your speculation that Scotland could be ‘forced to accept chlorinated chicken’ is unfounded.
As we have previously reminded Scottish Government ministers during discussions about the Bill, chlorine washed chicken is illegal in the UK. The UK Government has been clear we will not sign a trade deal that would compromise our high standards of food safety, animal welfare and environmental protection.
Of course, we recognise and welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to high standards in these areas. Our shared view should be the basis of an agreed UK approach to high standards.
3. You also claimed the new spending power contained in the Bill could divert funding from schools and hospitals in Scotland. This is not the case.
Education and health are – and will continue to be – devolved to the Scottish Parliament and decisions on funding in those areas are for your Government to take. Scotland’s block grant is at a record level and the Barnett Formula will continue to operate as set out in the Statement on Funding Policy.
The UK Government’s spending power set out in the Bill will complement existing Scottish Government spending powers. This can only be a benefit to the people and businesses of Scotland.
They will enable us to spend money previously controlled by the EU to make strategic investments of UK-wide importance.
This is good news for the communities we serve and I am confident these new opportunities will be warmly welcomed by the people of Scotland.
4. You claim the Bill, had it been in place at the time, would have prohibited the Scottish Parliament from legislating to introduce a minimum price for alcohol. Again – as we have already made clear to Scottish Government ministers – this is incorrect.
Under the terms of the Bill, the Scottish Parliament would be able to introduce a minimum alcohol price provided, of course, it was not applied only to alcoholic drinks produced in certain parts of the UK.
5. You claim the Bill is ‘a naked power grab’ and ‘an attack on the powers of devolution’. It is not.
The Scottish Parliament will lose none of its existing powers. Indeed, as powers return from Brussels when we leave the Transition Period at the end of the year, scores of new responsibilities will flow to Holyrood.
It should be noted that your Government’s ambition to take Scotland out of the UK and into the EU would remove these powers from the Scottish Parliament. That is the only threat to Holyrood’s powers.
6. Finally, you claim the Bill would ‘break’ or ‘cripple’ devolution.
I’m afraid your Government is never less convincing than when it purports to champion a system it unashamedly wishes to overthrow.
Independence would destroy devolution, ending our system of two governments which was backed overwhelmingly by the people of Scotland in the referendums of 1997 and 2014.
The UK Government emphatically supports devolution and our Bill will strengthen the Scottish Parliament and create new opportunities for Scotland.
Your colourful description of the Internal Market Bill as ‘an abomination’ is deeply regrettable.
In my view, it would be abominable for the people of Scotland to be misinformed about a Bill which has such potential to improve lives and strengthen our country.
THE RT HON. ALISTER JACK MP SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SCOTLAND
Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop has since written to the UK Government voicing concern at its plans for a post-Brexit internal market, saying it represents a threat to the Scottish economy.
Ms Hyslop said the proposed Internal Markets Bill will jeopardise Scotland’s food and drink sector, which has a world-renowned reputation for high standards and high quality products.
She also highlighted how the Bill will undermine the good progress made on common frameworks, the preferred means of managing policy difference across the UK when EU rules no longer apply.
Last month the Scottish Parliament considered the original proposals set out in the UK Government White Paper and voted overwhelmingly – by 92 votes to 31 – to reject them.
In her letter to Alok Sharma, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Ms Hyslop said:
“Coronavirus (COVID-19) is clearly currently the biggest challenge for business and the economy. Unnecessary legislation, which undermines devolution, on top of an entirely unnecessary end to the Brexit transition period will do nothing to protect or promote trade across the UK and beyond.
“If this legislation were already in place, Scotland would not have been able to lead the way on the ban on smoking in public, on introducing minimum unit pricing for alcohol, having rules on the marketing of raw milk consistent with the nature of the dairy sector in Scotland, or taking forward bans on the sale of plastic-stemmed cotton buds and microbeads in cosmetics.
“A linked concern is the prospect of the UK entering into future international trade agreements which might result in lower standard products being accepted into UK markets. Scotland’s world-leading food and drink sector, for example, is built on a reputation for the highest quality produce and nothing should be done to put that at risk.”
Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing at St Andrew’s House yesterday (Friday 11 September):
Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us. I am joined here today by the deputy chief medical officer Dr Nicola Steedman who will say a few words shortly.
I will start though with the usual run through of the daily statistics.
An additional 175 positive cases were confirmed yesterday.
That represents 2.7% of the people who were newly tested yesterday and the total number of cases is now 22,214.
80 of today’s cases are in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, 39 in Lanarkshire, 24 in Lothian and 12 in Ayrshire & Arran. The remaining 20 are spread across another 6 health boards.
I should flag up that the situation in Lanarkshire is causing some particular concern today. There will be expert public health discussions over the course of today and, depending on the judgments and conclusions they arrive at, it may be that some additional restrictions will have to be applied there. We will keep people updated.
I can also confirm that 269 patients are currently in hospital with confirmed COVID, which is three more than yesterday.
Eight people are in intensive care, which is one more than yesterday.
But I am pleased to say that in the last 24 hours, no deaths have been registered of patients who first tested positive.
The total number of deaths, under this measurement, therefore remains at 2,499.
Of course, that total, always reminds us that this virus has had a terrible impact and I want again to convey my condolences to everybody who has lost someone.
Today I want to focus on two key announcements that we made yesterday just to underline their importance of both.
Firstly, the Protect Scotland app, which you’ve probably heard, was launched yesterday. It is now available for download.
More than 600,000 people have already downloaded the app – so if you were one of those, thank you for doing so.
But for the app to be as effective as possible, to help us in the fight against COVID and to help us live a bit more normally, then we need as many people as possible across Scotland to download it and use it.
So if you haven’t yet done so, you can download it via the Protect.Scot website, you’ll see that on the front of the podium or you can go to the Apple or Google play app stores and search Protect Scotland and you’ll find the app there.
The process for downloading it is very quick and simple. You don’t need to provide any personal information.
The way in which the app works is also really simple.
If you test positive for COVID, you will be given a code by Test & Protect to enter into the app.
Once you do that, the app will automatically identifies any other app users you have been in close proximity with – that means anyone you have been within two metres of, for more than 15 minutes, within a particular time scale.
The app will then immediately alert those people that a contact of theirs has tested positive – though they won’t know who that is – and it will provide them with information and links to advice on self-isolating.
Similarly, you will receive an alert if a contact of yours has tested positive – but again you won’t know who they are. Everything about the app is anonymous and confidential.
It doesn’t replace the current Test & Protect system, but instead it’s an enhancement of that.
It will be particularly useful for settings – such as public transport – where we tend to spend time in close proximity to people we don’t know so we wouldn’t be able to give the details of these people to a contact tracer who telephones us.
We also think it will be very valuable as students start to arrive back at university or college. So if you’re a student about to go to college or Uni make sure you download the app because it will help with you having a bit of normality about how you go about your daily lives and if you have relatives that are about to start college or Uni, make sure you remind them to go on and download it.
Also, one of the crucially things about it is helps reduce the time it takes to notify contacts. If you think about it, a manual contact tracing system is excellent and it’s doing a great job but by definition the time taken to phone someone, taking the details from them and then contact those people, takes a bit of time.
By contrast, the app provides contacts with almost immediate notification which will then be supplemented by advice as necessary from the Test and Protect team.
So for all of these reasons that I really want to stress, this app is a really important way in which all of us can support Test and Protect in the efforts that they are making but also a really important way for all of us to keep our communities safe and I know Nicola will talk more about this shortly. But in the face of COVID, we can all feel a bit, you know, powerless right now but this is a way of us doing something positive that helps in that collective effort.
Let me just stress again, because I know there are some people that understandably have concerns about any technology. This app has been designed with privacy absolutely in mind. It is anonymous and confidential, as I said a moment ago, it does not track your movements, it doesn’t know where you are or track your location, apart from the most minimal of data it needs to work. It doesn’t collect or pass on data.
Your data won’t be past to the DWP or HMRC or anybody else and someone like me can’t go and look anything about you because it doesn’t identify you personally at all.
So it’s a really good innovation and a good enhancement of this vital Test and Protect system that as we go into winter becomes ever more important. And I’ll come back to the simple facts I started with.
The sign up rate we saw yesterday and overnight and into today is excellent, probably beyond our initial expectations but we’ve got to keep that going, we’ve got to keep the numbers growing because the more of us who download and use it, the more effective this app will be and a more effective Test & Protect will be overall in helping us to tackle COVID.
So I would encourage you to visit protect.scot and download the app today – and spread the word to all your friends and family as well.
It is a simple thing we can do but it’s a really important thing all of us can do as individual citizens to help protect Scotland as a whole.
The second issue I want to highlight are the new rules and guidelines that we announced yesterday. In particular, I want to emphasise the new rules on social gatherings.
You know since July, up to eight people from three households have been able to meet indoors. The limits are a bit higher for larger for outdoor gatherings.
These limits no longer apply. A maximum now of six people, from a maximum of two households, will be able to meet together.
Now, I know that that is a really tough restriction. That’s why I want to assure you that the decision we made on this wasn’t taken lightly. At the moment we believe this is necessary to try to limit and restrict as much as we can the transmission of the virus between different households.
To put it bluntly, this virus wants to find new households to infect – that’s pretty much all it cares about – and to survive it has to transmit from person to person and household to household. So in order to push it into retreat as we did over the summer, we have to limit the opportunities for it to spread between households.
Whether this virus thrives or dies, is down to the opportunities we give it or deny it.
So to reduce transmission, and also to simplify the rules, this new limit will apply indoors – in houses, in pubs and restaurants – and also outdoors, including in private gardens.
There will be some limited exceptions – for example for organised sports and places of worship.
I also outlined yesterday an exception to allow up to 20 people to attend funeral wakes or wedding and civil partnership receptions.
And any children under 12, who are part of two households meeting up, don’t count towards the limit of six people.
Now, our initial decision for the reasons I’ve talked about, trying to limit that spread between households, is that children under 12 do count towards the household number – so children from several different households can’t gather altogether in your home.
However, I have asked for some additional expert advice to see if in some circumstances we could exempt children from the two households rule as well.
For example, children’s birthday parties could go ahead, even on a limited basis, as long as adults complied with the limit. We will clarify this over the next few days. Hopefully in the early part of next week.
And that indicates that we don’t want these rules to be applied any more severely than they have to be but we have to make sure that they are applied stringently enough in order to have the desired effect. That’s why some decisions are quite difficult and we need to think quite carefully about them.
The basic rule though, to remind people, is that in any setting, indoors or outdoors for now, you should not meet in groups of more than six people from a maximum of two households.
The regulations that will give legal effect to the new measures will come into force on Monday, and more detail will be available on our website.
But I would encourage people to start sticking to them now, rather than waiting for them to take legal effect on Monday.
And of course, for now, for people living in Glasgow, East or West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire, the advice is not to visit other people’s households at all.
Now, I know all this can be really hard to understand – as you might have heard me saying at one of the briefings earlier in the week, at the early stage of this pandemic, we were just saying to all of you, just stay at home, that’s quite easy for people to understand, very hard to abide by, but easy to understand. It’s a bit more difficult now and I really get that.
We’re trying to simplify the rules as much as possible – but the point I want to just briefly touch on right now is that the fact that I know sometimes, these rules right now seem to be inconsistent.
One of the young people in my own life messaged me this morning to ask, pretty forcefully, why she can be with her friends at school all day today she can’t be with her friends after school later on.
And to be fair, that’s not an unreasonable question.
The basic answer is this – we are having to restrict interactions in the population generally to try to keep the virus at a low enough level to keep schools open, because we know being at school is so important for young people, educationally and socially.
So what can sometimes appear to be inconsistencies are actually the essential trade-offs that we need to make to avoid going back into lockdown more completely and to avoid, if at all possible, of having to close schools again.
So I know this can be difficult to understand but I would ask you, or seek to give you an assurance, that we do think carefully about all of this and while it can sometimes be difficult to fathom it, there is a rational behind the decisions that we are taking.
Now yesterday of course, we also decided to implement two additional measures to reduce the risk of transmission in the hospitality sector. Again, these will take effect legally from Monday but there’s no reason why people shouldn’t start to abide by these straight away.
Firstly, it will become mandatory for customers in hospitality premises to wear face coverings when they are not eating or drinking – for example when they enter the premises and go to their table, or when they leave the table to go to the bathroom.
And second it is already recommended in guidance that staff working in hospitality premises should wear face coverings. From Monday, that advice – subject to some exemptions, the same exemptions that apply to face coverings elsewhere – will become law.
The hospitality sector has put a lot of effort into making it safe for people to go out and meet up, and I am very grateful to them for that. These additional protections are all about helping to ensure the sector can remain open because that matters for the large numbers of people that of course who work within it as well as the people who enjoy the services that it provides.
The final point I want to make before handing over to Nicola, is that the changes that I announced yesterday I know are really unwelcome.
I did not want to announce them, and I’m sure that none of you wanted to hear them.
But in our judgement, imposing more restrictions now on how people can meet up, is necessary to avoid a stricter lockdown later.
Over the last month and a half, the average number of cases recorded in Scotland each day has been more than trebling every three weeks. That is not sustainable if we are to keep schools and businesses safely open.
So we have to act now in order to try to stem that increase and avoid more restrictive measures becoming necessary later. The other point that I made yesterday I want to stress today. This is all really frustrating and tiresome for everyone.
But on the upside we are in a stronger position now that we were back on March. Cases are not rising as quickly and that is partly because now, we have Test and Protect operating and people are much more used to having to do all the basic things to try to limit the spread of the virus.
So we’re in a stronger position but we must protect the progress we’ve made and try to stop the virus running out of control again particularly because we’ve always known going into winter with colder temperatures and damper conditions are likely to see this virus spread again more quickly so please stick to the new rules – of six people, and two households – and don’t wait until Monday, do that now.
And always remember the other measures that will minimise the risk of you passing the virus on to other people.
The simplest way of trying to remember all of that is FACTS.
These are the rules that all of us if we follow them will help keep transmission as low as possible, so
• Face coverings should be worn in enclosed spaces • Avoid crowded places. • Clean your hands and hard surfaces regularly. • keep to Two metre distancing. • and Self isolate, and book a test, if you have symptoms.
I spoke earlier about downloading the Protect Scotland app, as a really simple but powerful thing we can help our communities. It is, and I would encourage you to do that.
But so is sticking to the five rules in FACTS.
The basic point that was true back in March that I think motivated all of us through really dark, difficult times, remains just as true today.
While our experiences are all different, I know that, but fundamentally we’re all in this together.
And fundamentally, it’s only together can we save lives and beat this virus.
So please, continue to play your part by doing all the things we ask.
Download the app and comply with the FACTS guidance.
Thank you to everybody for doing that and please continue to spread the word.
