BANFFSHIRE and BUCHAN COAST Liberal Democrats

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Beatrice Wishart MSP has today warned that a "negligent" Scottish Government has allowed pupils to fall through the cracks as she revealed that more than 4,000 digital devices to enable home learning still hadn't been distributed to pupils a year after the pandemic struck.

North East Fife MP Wendy Chamberlain and a cross-party group of 76 MPs and Peers have called on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to extend the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until March 2022, to protect jobs in the aviation, travel, and tourism sectors.

The call from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Future of Aviation, follows figures released by the Office for National Statistics that showed that 57% of passenger air transport employees remain on furlough alongside 51% for travel agency and tour operator activities.

Responding to news today, Thursday, that air traffic controllers working at airports across the Highlands and Islands are to stage a one-day strike on July 29, Orkney's MSP, Liam McArthur, commented:

"This is bad news given the inevitable disruption any strike action will have on our lifeline air services. These are services that have already been badly affected by the pandemic, so this is the last thing that is needed.

An Audit Scotland report published today notes that the Scottish Government has yet to achieve its objective of ensuring that people convicted of criminal offences increasingly receive community-based sentences instead of going to prison, despite legislation being in place since 2016.

Responding to the report, Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP said:

New figures published today by Public Health Scotland show Test and Protect was under greater strain than previously thought, as revised figures show that at one point almost half of contacts were waiting more than 48 hours to be interviewed.

Figures published last week indicated that in the week ending 4 July 37.3% of cases waited more than 48 hours between a case being logged and an individual being interviewed. The revised figure published today put this figure at 48.9%.

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Beatrice Wishart MSP has today questioned the First Minister about the teachers left without a job, ahead of the new term start.

Casual contracts for teachers mean there are thousands of teachers who cannot secure mortgages or make other long-term commitments. Many have no job offer for the new term, forcing them to leave the profession to earn a living.

Scottish Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie has today pressed the First Minister on the necessary and urgent needed changes on isolation processes for key workers.

Mr Rennie said:

"The three code blacks issued by our hospitals in the last week means long awaited operations have been cancelled. Other essential services like pharmacies are closed, and bins are not collected. Social care has been impacted too. It's in large part because thousands of key workers are self-isolating even though they tested negative. I support the call from a Royal College for a test and release system so these people can return to work."

Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has today led a debate on post-Brexit fisheries, six months on from the UK's departure from the EU and the Common Fisheries Policy. Mr Carmichael and other MPs raised a wide and varied range of concerns from the fishing industries of the UK, including new trade barriers, lack of access to workers, safety problems with non-local boats and a general lack of support for the industry which had been promised a "sea of opportunity" after Brexit.

Statistics released by Public Health Scotland show A&E departments under "unsustainable pressure", as the percentage being seen within the four hour target time dropped to its lowest level since 22 December 2020, in the midst of the second wave.

Newly released figures show that just 81.6% of people attending A&E were seen within four hours. The target set by the Scottish Government is 95%.

Responding to the recent research conducted by Admiral claiming that that with almost 50,000 homes vacant, Scotland has the highest proportion of long-term vacant houses in Great Britain, Scottish Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson Paul McGarry said:

"Today's figures are shocking and show that the Scottish Government must do more to tackle empty homes. Despite the good work of the empty homes partnership it is clearly not cutting into the massive issue.