I WELCOME the announcement that new legislation which requires all homes in Scotland to have interlinked smoke and carbon monoxide alarms will be delayed until February 2022, particularly given the financial pressures people may be facing due to Covid-19.

The Scottish Government confirmed that it will ask Parliament to approve a 12-month delay in the deadline to carry out this important safety work. I know that this legislation and a leaflet campaign associated with it have alarmed constituents, and I wanted to assure that these concerns have been listened to. Covid-19 has had a profound impact on us all and has left many worse off financially or redundant. This may cause difficulty for people to afford the cost of installing new alarms and we should certainly look at mitigating extra financial pressures at this time, which is why I am very pleased with this scheduled delay.

Fire safety remains a priority, and I will continue to look closely at ensuring people have the support, information and advice they need to make changes in advance of the new standards coming into force in February 2022.

The First Minister has announced a new five-level strategic framework for Scotland which comes in place on November 2. This includes information on things like health, education, hospitality, shopping, travel, leisure and close contact services. It also includes information for those who were previously shielding. I would encourage all my constituents to look at the documents available on the Scottish Government website at gov.scot

I am pleased that the Scottish Government has voted to extend free school meals over the Christmas break and Easter holidays. This policy will help more than 1,140 children across East Lothian over the school holidays. We know that this year has created unique challenges for many families, and it is important that we do all that we can to support them. No child deserves to go hungry and I am pleased Scotland is maintaining a policy to ease the struggles of child poverty.