Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 09 February 2022
We are a very reasoned party, as Jackie Baillie is well aware. Of course, I would never criticise the Presiding Officer—I would never do that. However, I suggest to Jackie Baillie that she could have raised the matter at stage 1 or stage 2. The issue for me is that introducing the amendment at stage 3 does not allow appropriate parliamentary time to properly scrutinise its implications, which makes it difficult for us to consider. I do not think that that is the way to create good legislation.
I want to highlight Sandesh Gulhane’s contribution, in which he discussed living with Covid, which is an issue that the COVID-19 Recovery Committee has wrestled with. One of the key points in his speech was that restrictions are not without cost and there is a need to balance restrictions against the impact that they have on people’s livelihoods and on their mental and physical health. One of the most interesting things that he mentioned was the signals that we give to people and to businesses. He said that passing a law that retains the power for Government to shut down schools and businesses, release prisoners early and force another lockdown without any scrutiny sends the wrong signal.
As Murdo Fraser has suggested, the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill might not be afforded the same easy passage as the Coronavirus (Discretionary Compensation for Self-isolation) (Scotland) Bill. That said, the Scottish Conservatives will support the bill today, and we look forward to its becoming law.
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