The First Minister:

Those are important issues, and I will take them one by one—I will be as brief as possible, Presiding Officer.

I will start with PPE. Very clear guidance is in place across all four UK nations on the circumstances in which PPE should be used. That guidance was informed by clinical groups and expert organisations. Ultimately, it says that if any member of staff—the member of staff themselves, not Government or their bosses—risk assesses that they should be using PPE, they should use PPE.

We have also been working extremely hard to make sure that we have adequate supplies of PPE, and at no point during this crisis has Scotland run out of any pieces of PPE kit—in fact, we have been able to give mutual assistance in some respects to England. We have ensured those supplies and we are working to make sure that the distribution lines are as quick and effective as possible. We have put in place additional distribution lines—not just for healthcare workers but for social care workers. Thanks to the work that the Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation, Ivan McKee, has been leading, we have also been building a domestic supply chain for PPE, so that we have greater resilience for the future.

To be clear on expiry dates—because we have covered the issue before on several occasions—the only circumstance in which PPE that has gone past its expiry date should be used is if it has been revalidated by the relevant authorities as being safe to use. If that has not been done, it should not be used.

All those arrangements are in place. The health secretary speaks to trade unions regularly and if any concerns are raised, they are acted on.

On testing, in his first question Richard Leonard rightly and properly asked me about the nosocomial review group. He said that it was really important that it was independent and expert led and that we listen to its recommendations. In my answer, I said that one of the pieces of work that that group is looking at right now, on which it is about to give us recommendations, is the extension of routine testing to front-line healthcare workers. However, in his second question, he seemed to think that I should disregard all of that and take the decision regardless of what the nosocomial review group says.

We will continue to take clinically and expert-led decisions, and when such decisions are taken, we will make sure that the resources and processes are in place to implement them. That is the responsible way for any Government to deal with a crisis situation such as this one. It is the approach that we have taken so far and the approach that we will continue to take.