Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 23 March 2021
That is a really important point. I think that all of us are frustrated by the inability to travel across local authority boundaries to see loved ones. I know that I feel that, and I think that everybody does. We look forward to the point at which we can start to ease those travel restrictions across mainland Scotland. However, right now, the restrictions are in place for a purpose and it is incumbent on all of us to articulate that message and urge people to abide by those restrictions. Right now, we are asking that no one travel for any reason other than essential purposes and that people stay in their own local authority area.
As Bruce Crawford said, we hope to lift the current stay-at-home rule on 2 April. Initially, though—although we hope for no more than three weeks—stay at home will be replaced by guidance to stay local, and the continued legal requirement in level 4 areas for people not to travel outside their own local authority area unless it is for an allowed reason will remain in place. We will ensure that our marketing and messaging emphasise that message, particularly over the forthcoming Easter holiday period, but it is important that we all take the opportunity to reinforce that.
In what may become a theme today, I suspect that this is Bruce Crawford’s last contribution to the Parliament before he retires. Bruce, too, has being a valued colleague and a great friend of mine since I was a wean, so I am going to miss him dearly. It is hard to imagine the Parliament without Bruce Crawford. I wish him all good wishes for his retirement and I look forward to seeing him on some campaign trail, somewhere or other, very soon.