BANFFSHIRE and BUCHAN COAST Liberal Democrats

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton has today called on the Scottish Government to explore publishing more regularly official statistics on the number of deaths by suicide to help react to the mental health tidal wave that it is feared has been caused by Covid-19.

This week the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group raised concerns about the impact of the virus crisis on mental health and called on the government to "undertake enhanced monitoring of statistics on suicide and self-harm to identify emerging trends and groups at risk, to enable early preventative action".

As hotels follow self-catering accommodation in re-opening Far North MP Jamie Stone has made a plea for travellers to be cautious on Scotland's trunk roads as he revealed figures showing there were 785 serious or fatal accidents on Scotland's trunk road network between January 2017 and summer 2019.

Information provided by the Scottish Government to the Scottish Liberal Democrats, revealed that trunk roads taking people to the Highlands and North East including the A82, A9 and A90 saw the most accidents in which someone was injured or killed.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader has today asked the First Minister to use her first press briefing since the reintroduction of the Spanish quarantine to publish the science and the review which underpinned the lifting of the quarantine three days earlier.

Willie Rennie warned that the Scottish Government is putting public trust at risk if it refuses to publish that advice.

Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Jamie Stone, has coordinated an open letter calling on the Government to support the 3 million people that have been excluded from support during the pandemic. It has been signed by 99 MPs from 9 different parties, who are members of his ExcludedUK All Parliamentary Party Group.

Speaking as the Prime Minister visits Scotland and trades insults with the First Minister, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Willie Rennie said:

"We are still in the grip of a global pandemic. All our lives are still under restrictions.

"Yet the two leaders, the PM and the FM, have decided just to continue their tired old argument about the constitution. They need to get out of their comfort zones and agree to work together.

The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Willie Rennie has called on the First Minister to clear up a growing muddle about travel to Spain, following the daily briefing this lunchtime. She advised against non-essential travel abroad despite lifting the restrictions on travel from Spain. She also said prevalence of the virus was in decline despite the Spanish health ministry talking about an increase.

The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Willie Rennie has today written to the First Minister to ask for publication of the data surrounding the decision to release quarantine requirements for Spain.

The request is in the light of reports of scientific data from Spain which shows that the infection rate is currently three times higher than when quarantine was imposed.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has today written to the First Minister to warn that hotels and holiday lets are facing cancellations from English holidaymakers as a result of what one tourism business described as the "ever present threat of a quarantine on visitors from south of the border."

As lockdown eases and people increasingly socialise, Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has highlighted the need to drink responsibly and said new statistics showing 90,000 ambulance call-outs since 2016 registered alcohol as a factor "emphasise once again the thanks we owe to hardworking NHS staff".

Responding to the new report from Covid-19 Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children's Issues, which suggests "no distancing" will be required between students in primary or secondary schools, Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Beatrice Wishart MSP said:

"Teachers are understandably anxious about being in close proximity with large numbers of students while the rest of the country is told to maintain a safe social distance.