The Scottish Government convened the National COVID19 Cancer Treatment Response Group (CTRG) on 18 th March to form national clinical consensus in Scotland on changes to cancer treatment in response to the new risks associated with COVID-19 ensuring those most urgent cases were prioritised.

The group has produced clinical advice on an ongoing basis and throughout the pandemic the majority of cancer treatments have continued.

We have now established a National Cancer Recovery Group which has been established to offer national arbitration on overall clinical priorities. It will also oversee national data and modelling work in relation to cancer recovery and advise on patient and public communications.

Any cancer patient worried about symptoms should call their existing cancer treatment helpline or the national cancer treatment helpline. Individuals with serious or worrying signs or symptoms are encouraged to use the NHS as normal and contact their local GP practice.

A list detailing the title of Clinical Trials which were paused due to the Covid-19 pandemic can be found at NHS Research Scotland’s website: http://www.nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/uploads/tinymce/NRS%20Non-COVID-19%20Suspended%20Study%20Sites.pdf .

This identifies the Clinical Trials and the NHS Scotland Health Boards involved. As will be seen from the link, a number of Clinical Trials have since been reopened or terminated (e.g. because the trial was close to ending in any case). It should be noted that the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office has created strategic and operational groups to lead efforts to re-open all research in NHS Scotland as quickly and safely as possible.

Data on patients recruited from NHS Scotland in each of the last 12 months into non-COVID-19 Trials in Scotland are set out below.

June 2019 1,678

July 2019 1,839

Aug 2019 1,725

Sept 2019 1,358

Oct 2019 1,647

Nov 2019 1,431

Dec 2019 991

Jan 2020 1,500

Feb 2020 1,293

Mar 2020 789

Apr 2020 34

May 2020 19

Notes

1. The data does not take account of patients recruited into other types of research.

2. The number of patients recruited in previous years and still involved in Clinical Trials is not captured by NHS Research Scotland.

3. The data has been provided by research teams working in NHS Scotland and may not be complete.

As part of our activity we have worked with public and third sector partners to understand language and accessibility requirements, and have worked collaboratively to translate and distribute key coronavirus information. This has involved:

1. Digital marketing activity has been developed and undertaken to target those whose digital footprint highlights they are from a BAME community.

2. Scottish Government has been leading the coordination of translations of NHS Inform coronavirus content with NHS 24, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and NHS Lothian on a weekly basis from March to June. Content is translated into 12 different languages and formats.

3. Key promotional posters have been translated into various languages. For example, Household Isolation posters were translated into Polish, Mandarin, Arabic, BSL, Audio MP3, Easy Read, Kurdish, Sorani, Cantonese, Tigrinya, Vietnamese.

4. The two national door drops distributed by SG have been made available in a variety of language and accessible formats.

Scottish Government Policy teams are also working with relevant stakeholder and community groups to increase awareness of these resources and how to access them.

Scotland’s testing capacity fluctuates on a daily basis and for this reason, and given daily fluctuation in NHS capacity, it is not possible to give a definitive figure for the proportion of testing capacity that comes from UK regional testing facilities.

We are working hard to ensure we maximise use of our daily capacity, as we expect the number of daily tests to increase as we roll out Test and Protect. NHS lab capacity is currently around 10,000 tests a day and around 8,000 at the weekend, and is supported by non-NHS labs including: University of Edinburgh, University of Aberdeen, and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service.

In addition to this, we have further capacity through the Lighthouse Laboratory in Glasgow (run by the UK government), which has capacity to process approximately 20,000 tests a day. The Glasgow Lighthouse Laboratory may however process tests taken from across the UK.

Every death from COVID-19 is a tragedy and the Scottish Government offers our condolences to every family that has been impacted, not least those of our frontline health and care staff.

We are working to fully understand the impact of COVID-19, taking into account individual risk factors which would make someone more vulnerable to COVID-19 such as age, ethnicity, underlying co-morbidities, where they live and the prevalence of the virus in their local area.

I have asked all stakeholders, including NHS Unions and NHS Scotland employers, to work in partnership to examine options for arriving at pay settlements for both the immediate and longer term. Stakeholders will work together to agree a timetable for this. In addition, and in consultation with a wide range of partners across the health and social care sector, we are taking forward a raft of measures designed to provide support to staff at this difficult time. Information on these can be found at our National Wellbeing Hub - www.promis.scot 

We do not collect data relating to learning disabilities of people receiving testing. Consent would have to be provided by the individual to allow collection of this data.

a) Whilst we do not currently have any plans to impose restrictions on visitors from England, or anywhere else in the UK we will continue to consider any measures that might be necessary to protect against the risk of imported cases. One of our biggest risks over the next few weeks, as we have driven levels of the virus to very low levels in Scotland, is the risk of importation into the country.

b) The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 were introduced to the Scottish Parliament on Monday 8 June. These regulations were introduced as part of a four nation public health approach, which included regular discussions with the UK Government, Northern Ireland Executive and Welsh Government.

Under these rules all residents and visitors (bar a small list of exemptions) will need to provide journey and contact details when travelling to Scotland and have to self-isolate at their accommodation for the first 14 days. The regulations are being reviewed on a three weekly basis and the first review point was 29 June.

The Scottish Government have reviewed these measures closely and have assessed that there remains a requirement for them remain in place to reduce the risk of transmission and safeguard health. Following our assessment, some changes have been made to the exemptions list within the regulations, including the introduction of country specific exemptions. You can find out more about these measures and the exemptions list here .

It is for decision-makers to identify relevant material planning considerations on a case-by-case basis, and what weight to attach to each material consideration in determining the application.

We are developing proposals for radical change to our national planning policies and spatial strategy to support a transition to net zero by 2045 and economic recovery. Climate change mitigation and adaptation will be embedded across our strategy, proposals and policies in National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4).

In the meantime, we will update stakeholders by publishing an NPF4 Position Statement this autumn. This will highlight potential policy changes and reflect on what planning can do to help societal and economic recovery as well as addressing the climate emergency.