Nicola Sturgeon says Matt Hancock tried to limit Scotland's coronavirus testing

The First Minister said the Conservative Government’s Health Secretary proposed limiting the number of slots available for testing in Scottish mobile and regional test centres.

But his Scottish counterpart Jeane Freeman “managed to avoid that happening” during negotiations over the weekend, Sturgeon said.

She explained that the UK Government processes the majority of Covid-19 tests in Scotland but a UK-wide “demand issue” has been causing delays for patients waiting to receive their results.

Speaking at the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing, the First Minister said: “We were concerned over the weekend that one of the ways the UK Government was trying to deal with the backlog was to restrict access to testing, and the Health Secretary managed to avoid that happening in Scotland.”

Sturgeon said she has “serious concern” about the testing backlog and has urged Hancock to share the “full-scale and nature of issues they are facing” so her Government could help to try and fix the problems.

She continued: “There was a proposal over the weekend that the available slots at mobile testing units and regional testing centres in Scotland would be reduced and the Health Secretary managed to avoid that happening so that we retained full capacity for Scotland. We have no indication at the moment that there is any significant issue in Scotland with people accessing testing slots.”

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Sturgeon added: “The issue that we do appear to be suffering some impacts from – and again it’s a UK-wide issue – is a backlog in tests being processed that is then leading to a longer turnaround time.”

Freeman said she had “constructive conversations” with Hancock and her Welsh counterpart Vaughan Gething about the backlog, which she said was being caused by rising demand and “an issue with the speed and capacity of processing the tests”.

She added: “I was pleased that we managed not to have the restrictions on access to testing slots that were originally being proposed, but this is work that we need to continue because we need to try as best we can to work co-operatively and to resolve this situation.”

The UK’s Department of Health has been contacted for comment. The concerns about test results were raised after Sturgeon announced 70 new coronavirus cases north of the Border in 24 hours, but said she believed the figures were based on incomplete data due to issues with the testing system.

The additional positive cases account for 2.7% of newly-tested individuals, down from 3.2% on Sunday.

No deaths of confirmed Covid-19 patients have been recorded in the past 24 hours and the number of fatalities under this measure remains at 2499.

There were 264 people in hospital confirmed to have the virus, up by five in 24 hours. Of these patients, seven were in intensive care, the same as the previous day.

The First Minister also said more than 900,000 people have downloaded the Protect Scotland coronavirus contact tracing app since its launch last week. She said it was believed this was enough for the technology to begin working, but urged those who have not downloaded it to do so. She particularly urged students who will be heading to university soon to download the app.

Meanwhile, six people were arrested as police broke up 405 house parties across Scotland at the weekend in alleged breaches of coronavirus regulations. Just one fixed penalty noticed was issued between Friday and Sunday with police giving advice while dispersing party-goers.

Two officers were allegedly assaulted at one such incident in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, with the windows of two police cars also smashed at early Sunday. Two men were expected to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Elsewhere, a 21-year-old man was arrested and charged for allegedly obstructing officers as they responded to another reported house party at a tower block in Muirhouse, Motherwell, on Friday night.