Prime Minister has reinforced the importance of the strength of the
United Kingdom in the fight against Covid-19 and underlined the
crucial role that collaboration across the UK will play in
building back better from the pandemic over the coming months.
Ahead of a visit to Scotland today (Thursday), the Prime Minister
praised people across the United Kingdom for their contribution
to tackling the pandemic and highlighted how working
collaboratively has helped to save lives and livelihoods.
The UK Government has supported jobs and businesses across all
parts of the UK throughout the pandemic, as well as supporting
the devolved administrations with their testing regimes and
vaccination programmes.
In Scotland, the British Armed Forces is helping to establish 80
new vaccine centres and more than 415,000 people have already
been vaccinated in Scotland.
The UK Government has procured vaccine supply on behalf of all
parts of the UK and we work closely together on logistics and
supply.
Additionally, a third of Scottish ambulance calls were being
taken by centres in England over the weekend, following a high
level of staff absence for call handlers in the Scottish
Ambulance Service related to Covid-19, with ongoing mutual aid.
The UK Government has now also delivered over one million rapid
lateral flow test kits to Scotland so far and is funding sites
across Scotland – including seven drive-through testing centres,
and 27 walk-though sites, as well as funding 21 mobile testing
units, and the Lighthouse Lab in Glasgow. Overall, the UK
Government has provided 62 per cent of testing kits in Scotland.
Ahead of his visit to Scotland, Prime Minister said:
“The great benefits of cooperation across the whole of the UK
have never been clearer than since the beginning of this
pandemic. We have pulled together to defeat the virus, providing
£8.6bn to the Scottish Government to support public services
whilst also protecting the jobs of more than 930,000 citizens in
Scotland.
“We have a vaccine programme developed in labs in Oxford being
administered across the United Kingdom by our Armed Forces, who
are helping to establish 80 new vaccine centres across Scotland.
That’s how we are delivering for the people of Scotland so we can
ensure the strongest possible recovery from the virus.
“Mutual cooperation across the UK throughout this pandemic is
exactly what the people of Scotland expect and it is what I have
been focussed on. The people of the UK have stood together during
this pandemic: from our doctors and nurses in our hospitals to
our shop workers, scientists, lorry drivers and teachers –
working together as one truly United Kingdom is the best way to
build our Covid recovery.”
The UK Government has provided £8.6bn to help Scotland fight
coronavirus this year. An additional £2.4bn will be provided for
the Scottish Government next year, including £1.3bn to tackle the
pandemic – meaning we are providing a total of £9.9bn extra to
the Scottish Government to tackle Covid.
One in three jobs in Scotland has been supported by the UK
Government’s unprecedented employment support package – loans and
support worth more than £3.4bn have been given to more than
90,000 firms in Scotland since the outbreak.
Across the United Kingdom, in total, over 1.7m jobs and
livelihoods in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have been
protected by the UK Government’s unprecedented employment support
package.
We are also providing £16.8bn to the devolved administrations
this year to help them fight coronavirus. That means that for
every person in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, we’re
providing around £1,600 extra to help fight the virus.
And more than 187,000 businesses in Scotland, Northern Ireland
and Wales have benefitted from £7 billion of coronavirus support
through the government’s Bounce Back Loan and Coronavirus
Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
