Guidance on working from home will be relaxed within days after Scotland continued to make progress in the battle against Omicron.
Nicola Sturgeon slams UK Government over reports that free lateral flow tests will end
09.01.2022 - 13:05 / dailyrecord.co.uk
Nicola Sturgeon has hit out at reports Tory ministers are considering ending the free availability of lateral flow tests.
The First Minister claimed such a move would be "utterly wrongheaded" in the fight against coronavirus.
Under plans reportedly being weighed up by Whitehall officials, the tests could soon only be available in "high-risk" settings such as care homes, hospitals and schools.
A Whitehall source told the Sunday Times: “I don’t think we are in a world where we can continue to hand out free lateral flow tests to everybody forevermore.
"It’s likely we will move to a scenario where there is less testing but where we have a capacity to ramp it up if necessary, such as in the winter.”
Sturgeon said last night the Scottish Government would consider funding lateral flow tests for the public if Tory ministers halted the scheme at a UK level.
She tweeted: "If UK Government is really considering this is utterly wrongheaded. Hard to imagine much that would be less helpful to trying to ‘live with’ covid.
"What happens via Barnett Formula to Scottish Government funding if UK Government axes free tests?
"Testing so vital, we’d have to consider continued funding but it would then come from existing budgets. More evidence that current UK funding rules not fit for purpose."
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, said: "Nothing should surprise us from the Government of Boris Johnson but the threat of removing free lateral flow tests is madness.
"These tests are an important defence to help restrain the growth of cases. This would be highly irresponsible."
But a UK Government minister today denied free tests would be scrapped.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News: “I saw that story this morning, which I was slightly
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