2. Welcome back, Presiding Officer.

We all want the country to succeed in containing and then eradicating the virus, so saving lives. However, we now know that, between March and April, more than 3,500 people were discharged from Scotland’s hospitals and 1,431 of them went into care homes. How many of those people were tested for Covid-19 before discharge? How many were sent into care homes where Covid-19 was already present?

As I have said before, we do not yet have the data that will tell us how many older people who were discharged were tested. The statisticians have to bring together that data from different sources, but we will continue to publish data as we have it in a reliable form.

I remind Richard Leonard that, back then—as is the case now, to some extent—there were doubts about the reliability, or at least the relative reliability, of testing people who were not displaying symptoms for Covid-19. That is why the emphasis in the guidance that was issued to care homes—the first guidance was issued on 13 March—was, in line with the technical guidance that the World Health Organization issued later in March, on risk assessment for residents who were being discharged from hospital to care homes, clinical risk assessment and infection prevention and control. It included the measures that care home providers were required to take to isolate residents and to ensure that there was less communal activity in care homes. At all stages, the guidance has been consistent with the evidence and advice, and it will continue to be so.

I make the point that, although nobody will ever hear me minimise the tragedy of what has happened overall with coronavirus or specifically in care homes, we see today in the latest National Records of Scotland report that the number of deaths in care homes is declining slightly faster than the rate of deaths in hospital. That says that the measures that we are taking in care homes are having an effect, and we need to keep focused on ensuring that we do the right things.

Three weeks ago, I was contacted by a care worker from South Lanarkshire who had watched the First Minister tell me in Parliament that day at First Minister’s questions that tests were no longer limited to care workers who were symptomatic. However, when that worker approached her manager, she was told that she could have a test only if she had symptoms. When she went on to the online test portal, it told her the same. When she tried the NHS Lanarkshire website, it rejected her.

I wrote to NHS Lanarkshire, which responded on 28 May, 15 days after the First Minister’s answer to me in Parliament. It told me:

“We are currently working through the operational implications of the recent Scottish Government announcement on testing of all care home staff on a weekly basis.”

Today, I spoke again to the worker who contacted me. She has still not been tested, and she is concerned about her family and the vulnerable people whom she cares for.

When will all those care home workers who want to be tested be tested? When will the promise of regular weekly testing finally be delivered in Scotland?

The First Minister:

As I set out a moment ago, the programme is under way and is progressing. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport will set out more details of the delivery of that programme, and we will publish data from it.

If Richard Leonard had contacted me three weeks ago—I offer him my apologies if he did so—I could have explained the differences between the different strands of access to testing. Testing through the portal and the drive-through centres is principally for people who are symptomatic. The routine testing of health and care staff and non-symptomatic staff in care homes is being organised through national health service boards and overseen by public health advisers. Those are the different strands of testing. The strand that Richard Leonard is talking about is on-going and, as I said, we will publish data from it when it is as reliable and robust as we want all the data that we publish to be.

I do not doubt that the First Minister believed it when she said that all care home workers would be tested, but there is a consistent disconnect between pronouncements in Parliament and the reality that is facing workers on the ground in Scotland’s care homes. Promises have been made on pay, personal protective equipment and testing, but they have been delivered too late or have still not been delivered at all.

This week, not just care workers’ trade unions but care home bosses have said that the Government’s focus is on generating headlines rather than delivering for workers on the front line. As we begin to ease the lockdown, what confidence can those workers have that the First Minister’s Government will not just make more big announcements but will actually deliver the real changes to Scotland’s care services that we need to give people dignity in their final years and to give the people who look after them proper recognition and reward and the respect that they deserve?

The First Minister:

Part of my daily responsibility with my ministers is to give people confidence in how we are dealing with this and to set out very clearly and candidly the steps that we are taking and the challenges that we face along the way. We have done that every step of the way, and I think that, broadly speaking, that is the reason why the majority of people in Scotland express confidence in the way in which the Scottish Government is handling matters.

Without minimising the tragedy of what we are dealing with, we are now seeing the number of deaths overall and the number of deaths in care homes declining significantly. That says that the package of measures that we have implemented and are delivering in care homes is having the effect that we want it to have. We will continue on an on-going basis to ensure that the policies that we are announcing are delivered consistently and that we publish the data that allows all of that to be scrutinised and allows us to be held to account.

The last point that I will make is one that I make genuinely in the spirit of collaboration and partnership in which we have always tried to deal with this. To use Richard Leonard’s term—it is not my term—care home bosses, too, have a responsibility to work in partnership with us to ensure that care homes are safe. Let us not forget that care home providers have a responsibility, our health protection teams and public health directors have a responsibility, and the Scottish Government has a responsibility. We will continue to bring to bear that collective effort so that we will—I hope—see the trend in the figures that has been outlined today continue, and the number of deaths and the number of new cases in care homes continue to decline. I think that all of us want to see that.