Committee
COVID-19 Recovery Committee 04 November 2021
04 Nov 2021 · S6 · COVID-19 Recovery Committee
Item of business
Ministerial Statement and Subordinate Legislation
Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/349)
There will be a division. For Brown, Siobhian (Ayr) (SNP) Fairlie, Jim (Perthshire South and Kinross-shire) (SNP) Mason, John (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP) Rowley, Alex (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab) Against Fraser, Murdo (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Whittle, Brian (South Scotland) (Con)
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Under agenda item 2, the committee will take evidence on the ministerial statement on Covid-19, subordinate legislation and the other matters that are noted ...
The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery (John Swinney)
SNP
I am grateful to the committee for the opportunity to discuss a number of matters, including the Covid update to Parliament from the Cabinet Secretary for He...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you, Deputy First Minister. I will ask a few questions first. I thank you for your response to our letter on the vaccination passport regulations. In ...
John Swinney
SNP
The point that I was trying to make in my response to the committee was that it is impossible to segment the headline data about the prevalence of the virus ...
The Convener
SNP
For transparency, I note that the committee requested in its recent letter that certain information be provided to Parliament alongside the three-weekly revi...
John Swinney
SNP
I will certainly look at that point, convener. As I have said to the committee on a number of occasions, the Government publishes a vast amount of informatio...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you. As I mentioned last week, the COVID-19 Recovery Committee is trialling an online public platform to allow members of the public to ask questions. ...
John Swinney
SNP
I will take away the point about data on children and long Covid, and I will advise the committee on whether there is any data that could be shared in that r...
Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Con
Good morning, cabinet secretary and colleagues. I return to the matter of the vaccination certification scheme, which the convener touched on in her first qu...
John Swinney
SNP
No, it is not a disaster in any shape or form. Mr Fraser is completely wrong to characterise the scheme as being just about boosting vaccination levels. That...
Murdo Fraser
Con
You have given us your opinion and belief that the scheme is having a positive impact, but you have not given us any evidence of that. In fact, you said in y...
John Swinney
SNP
That issue is causing me some concern, and I intend to investigate it after the meeting. I have only just become aware of the information that the BBC publis...
Murdo Fraser
Con
I want to ask again about the issue of economic impact. We have heard from the Night Time Industries Association and the Scottish hospitality group about a m...
John Swinney
SNP
Mr Fraser has concentrated on a number of points of definitive evidence. I have been candid with the committee, in all my correspondence and in oral evidence...
Murdo Fraser
Con
We have heard in evidence and from our adviser this morning that every other country in Europe that has brought in a vaccination passport scheme allows, as a...
John Swinney
SNP
That option is still under active consideration by ministers.
Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con)
Con
I will follow on from some of Murdo Fraser’s points. As you said, cabinet secretary, there were four bullet points giving the reasons for the implementation ...
John Swinney
SNP
I would not characterise the situation in that fashion. We are taking a set of carefully targeted interventions to try to secure our objectives. Our strategi...
Brian Whittle
Con
What I am hearing in that reply is that you are unable, in the three-week review process, to ascribe an increase in vaccine uptake specifically to the impact...
John Swinney
SNP
I refer to the data that I put on the record in response to Mr Fraser’s question. As of 1 September—before the vaccination certification scheme was put in pl...
Brian Whittle
Con
I want to move on but, from a science perspective, we do not know by how much vaccine uptake would have increased without a vaccination passport scheme. That...
John Swinney
SNP
We have been using a number of means of communication. Some of it has been through public information and campaigns to encourage vaccinations. We have also b...
Brian Whittle
Con
We also need to target people who are vaccine hesitant. How are we addressing the needs of those people? Pushing harder is likely to result in more entrenche...
John Swinney
SNP
I will say a few words and then I will bring in Professor Leitch. The Government has wider messaging about the risks that the population faces from being unv...
Professor Jason Leitch (Scottish Government)
I have invested quite a lot of personal time in talking to the groups that Brian Whittle described. I have discovered a group of African mums and groups in t...
Brian Whittle
Con
For the record, I am not necessarily against vaccination passports, but I need to understand their implementation and that resources are being used as best t...
Professor Leitch
I agree.
Brian Whittle
Con
I go back to addressing the needs of people who are vaccine hesitant. What work has been done to ensure that those people are not excluded from everyday acti...
John Swinney
SNP
The circumstances in which vaccination certificates are required for entry are rather limited—late-night premises with music that sell alcohol, unseated indo...
Brian Whittle
Con
I will ask a quick final question, if I may, convener. Has the Scottish Government decided what the criteria will be for withdrawing the passport scheme?