Hansard

These regulations are a key part of the effort to control and suppress coronavirus, to protect health and to save lives in Scotland. They give local authorities the powers to make directions in respect of premises, events and public outdoor places. Directions can close premises or prohibit events from taking place, or can impose public health conditions on them.

Local authorities can give directions only when strict conditions are met. A direction needs to be necessary for the purpose of prevention of, protection against, control of, or provision of a public health response to the incidence or spread of infection by coronavirus, needs to achieve those through proportionate means, and needs to be reviewed at least every seven days.

Directions that are made about premises or public outdoor places can last only for a maximum of 21 days, and local authorities must take all reasonable steps to give advance notice of a direction to those it affects. The Scottish ministers must be notified of every direction that is given and can revoke it if they do not consider that the conditions have been met. Those whom the directions affect can appeal them to the sheriff. We consider that the scheme is rigorous, balanced and fair, with a range of safeguards in it to protect those who are affected.

As well as the safeguards in the regulations, the Scottish ministers have now issued statutory guidance about how those powers should be used. The regulations require local authorities to have regard to that guidance, which makes absolutely clear that the direction should be issued only as a last resort, and that reasonable effort should be made first to resolve any issues by agreement between the local authority and business owner or event organiser.

The guidance requires the use of the four Es model—engage, explain, encourage and, only then, enforce—which ministers produced in conjunction with local authorities. We are committed to keeping the guidance updated and to learning from how the powers are, and are not, used on the ground.

The regulations are necessary, and the powers in them can be used only when necessary. The Scottish ministers who work with local authorities have given them those powers and we have also allocated further funding of up to £2.9 million over the next two financial years to support that process and allow local authorities to step up inspection and enforcement. We are working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on the allocation of that funding to local authorities, which want and need those powers to protect those who live in their areas against the greatest threat to public health in any of our lifetimes. Parliament should support those new powers and those regulations.