Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 10 September 2020.
Ruth Davidson
Conservative
I accept that the community testing technology is complex and may not quite be there yet, but we have seen experts such as Professor Jose Vazquez-Boland, chair of infectious diseases at Edinburgh university, and Professor Hugh Pennington explain that we need more than the current measures if we are going to eradicate Covid-19, and identifying those who are asymptomatic, through mass testing, is a really important tool.
The First Minister says that she is working with the UK Government towards mass testing. That is really positive. Is she able to give a bit more information on how she hopes that that will be achieved, and does she have any timescales for informing the public about it?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
