Hansard

Presiding Officer, I wish to oppose motion S6M-03341, which relates to a statutory instrument that extends the Scottish Government’s extraordinary emergency powers in response to the Covid pandemic for a further six months, from 1 March until the end of September this year. That will mean that, in total, the Scottish ministers will have held those powers for two-and-a-half years. That includes the powers to require vaccination passports for entry to certain premises and to make face masks mandatory. The instrument is only a precursor to the Scottish National Party’s intention to make the emergency powers permanent. That cannot be acceptable.

Across all parts of the United Kingdom, we have seen a relaxation of the legal restrictions that were previously imposed to tackle Covid. We saw that first in Wales, then last week in Northern Ireland and, on Monday, the Prime Minister announced a scrapping of the rules in England. In all those jurisdictions, rules are being ditched. We are at the point at which

“we move away ... from legal restrictions and rely instead on sensible behaviours, adaptations and mitigations.”—[Official Report, 22 February; c 20.]

Those are not my words, but those of the First Minister in this very chamber on Tuesday afternoon.

Why, if that is the position of the Scottish Government, do we need to have these emergency powers in the hands of ministers for a further six months? Surely, it is time to start trusting the people to exercise personal responsibility.

Already the Scottish people have demonstrated that they can be trusted to act responsibly. Some members of this Parliament were left looking rather foolish earlier this week when they commented on the Prime Minister ditching the rules that required self-isolation following a positive test in England, as they were seemingly unaware that there has never been a law in Scotland that required people to self-isolate in those circumstances. The only laws on self-isolation here related to the limited circumstances of international travellers. Instead, we have public health guidance, which has been strongly adhered to by the Scottish public.

Therefore, the Scottish people have already demonstrated their willingness to comply with guidance. We also saw that in December when, within hours of advice being issued by Public Health Scotland about Christmas parties, the hospitality trade was being deluged with cancellations. It was not the law that forced people to take that action, but their adherence to public health guidance.

We should, in this Parliament, be trusting the people to exercise their good sense and judgment, which the Scottish people have demonstrated in spades that they are capable of doing. There is no need to extend the emergency powers for one day longer and the Parliament should reject the instrument that is before us.