Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 09 December 2020
Let me address some of the points that have been raised by members.
First, Ross Greer and Beatrice Wishart both mentioned the position of vulnerable teachers. I have placed on the record, and it is implicit in the guidance that the Government has issued on the matter, that individual assessments must be made by the employers—the local authorities. The Government does not employ teachers, so local authorities must make assessments of the clinical circumstances of individual teachers and, as the Parliament has said in the past—the Government agreed—teachers who are judged to be clinically vulnerable should be deployed on other duties to enable them to preserve their health and wellbeing. That is central to the duty of employment that rests with individual local authorities.
Elaine Smith raised a number of points in relation to testing, as did Ross Greer. I will put on the record something that has not been particularly obvious from some contributions to the debate: asymptomatic testing is available for teachers now. Today, Scotland is the only part of the United Kingdom that makes it available to teachers. A teacher who is worried can get a test even if they have no symptoms. That provision is not available anywhere else in the United Kingdom, but there has been no acknowledgement of that in points that some members have made in the debate.
Elaine Smith also made a point about prioritisation for vaccination. The Government and the health secretary have been quite clear about that, and the Cabinet has agreed. We have taken our clinical advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. Asking us to take a different stance means inviting us simply to ditch clinical advice. I do not think that the Parliament would forgive us if we were to ditch the clinical advice that is available to us.