Covid in Scotland: Free testing likely to continue after April

Free Covid testing will continue in Scotland at some level beyond April, the deputy first minister has said.

The Scottish government is seeking clarity from the UK government about how testing is funded after mass free testing ends in England on 1 April.

John Swinney said Scottish ministers would set out in March how free PCR and lateral flow tests would be allocated.

The Scottish Conservatives said Nicola Sturgeon should fund testing from existing budgets.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab later said Scotland had been granted an additional £6.5bn to finance its Covid recovery.

On Tuesday the first minister announced Scotland's legal Covid-19 restrictions would end on 21 March and the country would rely instead on vaccines, treatments and "good public health behaviours".

The move comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that England's restrictions will be lifted on Thursday, with the requirement to self-isolate dropped and free mass testing ending in April.

Ms Sturgeon expressed frustration at Mr Johnson's approach, calling for clarity about how the testing system - which operates UK-wide - would operate in future.

'Maintain virus intelligence'

Speaking to BBC radio's Good Morning Scotland, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said he did not yet know whether people would still be able to pick up free lateral flow tests (LFTs) at a pharmacy after 1 April.

"We think that where there is a requirement for testing to be undertaken, that should be delivered as part of the overall commitment of the National Health Service [and] that these services should be provided free of charge," he said.

In the meantime, he said, the Scottish government was advising people to test a "couple of times a week", as they had done before the emergence of Omicron increased the guidance on frequency.

Some high street pharmacies in England are planning to sell the tests for £2.50 each or £5.99 online from April, with supermarkets also expected to stock them.

The Scottish government's transition plan, which is being prepared for March, will set out the "circumstances and conditions" which would allow people access to free testing.

This was likely to be a combination of PCR and lateral flow testing, Mr Swinney said, and would "reflect the settlement provided by the UK government".

Mr Swinney said the UK government indicated it wanted to do sufficient testing to "maintain the intelligence that requires it to pick up where there are new strains of the virus emerging".

"That approach sounds to me as if it requires testing to be continued within England," he said. "We need to understand the financing of all of that."

He said all four nations needed clarity on the implications of that funding coming from the Treasury - which would allow for a proportionate amount of funding coming to the Scottish government - or if the Department of Health was expected to find the money from its existing budget for England.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, speak to BBC Scotland's The Nine on Tuesday, said: "Those tests, as we know, are procured on a four nations basis. If the UK government chooses not to give us additional funding... then we would have to look within existing budgets to fund that."

Sturgeon should 'fund her position'

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab praised the team effort of the devolved administrations and said collaborative working had enabled the UK to come through the pandemic.

Mr Raab said Scotland had been allocated an additional £6.5bn from the Treasury, on top of the block grant, to fund its recovery from the crisis.

During a visit to Edinburgh he told BBC Scotland: "It is for the Scottish people and government and parliament to decide the best allocation, whether it is for testing or other measures, but I think that is the right approach to take.

"We would not stay in emergency measures indefinitely."

MSP Sandesh Gulhane, the Scottish Conservatives' health spokesman, told the BBC that testing had to continue while Scotland maintained restrictions, but that the Scottish government should fund it.

Dr Gulhane said: "Because we've started in such a restricted position compared to everyone else, it is only right and proper that Nicola Sturgeon funds the positions that we're in and accepts that the decisions that she has made, despite it not making any difference to her case numbers."

She should "fund increased testing whilst we are coming out of the problem that she has created", he added.

However, he added it was right to move to allowing people to make their own decisions about Covid risks and said: "It was never law to isolate in Scotland but people did it because we trust the Scottish people to do the right thing".

'Grossly irresponsible'

Daniel Johnson, Scottish Labour's finance spokesman, told Good Morning Scotland he still needed clarity about how the virus was going to be managed in Scotland.

He added: "I think it is grossly irresponsible of the UK government to withdraw this funding, collapsing what has definitely been a pillar of our response to this virus, before we have vanquished this virus."

Prof Cindy Gray, who studies health and behaviour at the University of Glasgow, told to BBC Radio Scotland's Lunchtime Live that abolishing free testing would create problems for many people.

She said: "People who can't afford it will not be able to access testing and won't know whether or not they have Covid. I think the calls that testing should be retained and discussions around whether we can do that in Scotland, are really, really important.

"I do think free testing should be accessible for everybody."