Dundee Liberal Democrats - www.dundeelibdems.scot

I am pleased to announce today that in Wales we have secured free school meal provision for all school holidays until at least Easter 2021.

The coronavirus pandemic has presented countless challenges this year, but with the Welsh Government now guaranteeing £11 million for these provisions, we can help support those who look to school for more than just education.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has today committed to fixing an interoperability issue with the Scottish and English test and trace apps.

The Protect Scotland and NHS COVID-19 apps help NHS Scotland and England carry out test and tracing respectively. However, if someone crosses the border they have to manually switch between the two apps - it does not happen automatically.

The Government have completely lost control of coronavirus across vast swathes of the country, and the situation in London is looking very difficult.

In the north of England, and now in London, the sacrifices of millions of people have been squandered by this Government.

Because of Boris Johnson's failure to ensure our test, trace and isolate system worked, millions of people will have to make those sacrifices again.

After the target of spot-checking 20% of quarantining travellers was met for the first time since it was first announced in June, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie commented:

"It shouldn't have taken months and our raising this repeatedly with ministers including Nicola Sturgeon for this basic threshold to have finally been met.

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton today said the Scottish Government "wasted the time people gave them over the summer" after new statistics showed that last week hundreds more people weren't interviewed about their whereabouts and contacts within 48 hours of their positive test being logged.

Liberal Democrat veterans spokesperson, Jamie Stone MP, has today sought assurances from the Scottish Government that it will consider "workable suggestions" to ensure Remembrance Day services can go ahead in this important year of anniversaries.

2020 is the 75th anniversary of VE Day and VJ Day.

Jamie Stone said:

"Remembrance Day is extremely important to communities across the country and this is a year of memorable military anniversaries.

"We need to ensure that in this difficult climate people can pay their respects safely.

"The First Minister said she will be looking closely at a future framework for coronavirus rules over the Holyrood recess. I would urge her to look carefully at remembrance events. Workable suggestions to ensure these important memorials go ahead must be taken into consideration.

"There are plenty ways to conduct wreath laying ceremonies in a spaced-out fashion outside. Ministers must strive to make sure this happens."

On behalf of the Liberal Democrats, I have written to Equalities Minister Liz Truss calling on her to stop all forms of hair discrimination.

We must combat racism wherever we find it in our society, and this all-too-prevalent form of prejudice must end.

Read my letter in full...

Dear Liz,

We are writing to urge you to take action to end hair discrimination in schools, colleges and workplaces, and throughout society.

Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has called for the creation of a formal UN mission to investigate human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslims in China. Mr Carmichael pointed to recent reports from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which shed more light on the Chinese government's attempts to repress this ethnic minority group, through methods such as forced labour camps and sterilisation procedures.