Meeting of the Parliament 01 April 2020
I will set out for Parliament the Government’s plans for managing its legislative programme in the light of the impacts of Covid-19.
Scotland, as countries around the globe do, faces an unprecedented challenge. The fact that Parliament will spend the lion’s share of today on the emergency Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill is ample evidence of the current reality. The next few weeks and months are likely to be extremely difficult, and will need sustained collective national endeavour in response.
Every organisation the length and breadth of the country is having to find creative, innovative and flexible ways to respond to this unique and challenging situation: the Government is no different. Not only are we having to manage the crisis nationally under the leadership of the First Minister, but we must, like any other employer, protect our staff and ensure their wellbeing, and accept that, despite our best endeavours, our workforce will be impacted.
Along with every other organisation, we are under pressure, and we are having to manage our resources as carefully as we can so that we can devote the maximum effort to concentrating on the nation’s response to the Covid-19 crisis.
The self-same challenges face Parliament, as is demonstrated clearly by the fact that we are, in order to follow guidelines, meeting for only one day this week, and with reduced numbers. I therefore record my gratitude for the constructive way in which members, committees and Parliament officials have responded to what is confronting us.
As the First Minister has made clear, we expect that the Government’s response to Covid-19 will be sustained over an extended period. The chief medical officer has said that restrictions could be in place for 13 weeks, and the United Kingdom’s deputy chief medical officer has indicated that the situation could impact on our lives for six months, or perhaps more. We therefore need to make some pragmatic but fundamental and essential changes to the legislative plans that are before Parliament.
The Government’s legislative programme absorbs a lot of the time and resources of the Government, Parliament and beyond. I am sure that members will accept that it is entirely inevitable that we have had to consider carefully the implications of the Covid-19 outbreak for that programme. I am clear that delivery as expected of the existing or intended programme is not possible; a different approach is required. I will, therefore, set out the principles that I am, in that context, adopting in managing the Government’s legislative programme.
The first principle is that the Government will prioritise legislation that is needed to respond to Covid-19. In particular, we will introduce any necessary emergency legislation beyond what is provided for in the UK Government’s emergency Coronavirus Act 2020 and the Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill, which we are in the midst of scrutinising today.
In addition to the introduction of more justice-related legislation immediately after the Easter recess, on which a commitment was given by ministers this morning, it is highly likely that we will have wider emergency legislation to consider before May, such is the scale and volume of the issues that require to be addressed.
The second principle is that the Government will also prioritise other essential non-Covid-19 legislation. As members know, Parliament routinely passes a wide range of essential secondary legislation that is needed to ensure that our public services and other parts of society can continue to operate effectively. Government and Parliament officials are working collaboratively to identify the most efficient means of dealing with the most pressing secondary legislation.
The third principle is that we will deprioritise any legislation, primary or secondary, that is not identified as being essential in the immediate term. Although it remains my view that every piece of legislation that the Government proposes has an essential purpose, it is obvious, in these exceptional circumstances, that not all essential purposes can be treated as equal. In other words, not all of our current programme can, or will, be delivered according to the timescale that we had previously announced—not when Parliament, its committees and its members must, in their own ways, respond to the challenges that Covid-19 presents. I am therefore taking steps to ensure that resources and parliamentary time can be diverted from legislation that is not time bound, in order to free up our capacity to deal with Covid-19.
The fourth principle is that we will work openly and collaboratively with Parliament—including the Parliamentary Bureau and the committees—in managing delivery of legislation during this difficult period. I want to acknowledge the importance of the committees and their conveners in all this. I highlight the Agriculture (Retained EU Law and Data) (Scotland) Bill and the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Bill as examples of our working collaboratively to overcome challenges that are related to Covid-19.
Stage 1 of the Agriculture (Retained EU Law and Data) (Scotland) Bill is still to be concluded. I do not intend to ask the Parliamentary Bureau to schedule it in the immediate future because I wish as many members of the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee as possible to be able to participate. We hope, all being well, provisionally to target a date in early May.
It has, as a consequence of coronavirus, proved to be impossible for the Health and Sport Committee to scrutinise the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Bill properly, thus far. Following discussions with the committee’s convener and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, it has been agreed that we will seek to extend the stage 1 deadline.
I make it clear, however, that both those bills are extremely important and necessary, and that it is my intention that both will continue and be completed.
To assist with preparation and processing of the emergency bill that we are debating today, the Government has delayed the introduction of the hate crime bill and the social security bill, but I hope that the delay is merely temporary. It is our intention that the bills will proceed and be completed in this session of Parliament.
To be absolutely clear, I say that we hope to conclude stage 3 of the Consumer Scotland Bill, the Scottish Elections (Reform) Bill and the Disclosure (Scotland) Bill as soon as it is practical to do so.
I reiterate that—as the cabinet secretary, Michael Russell, has previously said—for the time being no additional work is being done on the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill, although we will be forced to revisit that quickly if the UK Government does not move to a commonsense extension of the transition period.
The fifth principle is that we will, once we are operating in a post-Covid world—we all look forward to that—work with Parliament to consider how we effectively manage the remaining Government and non-Government legislation that we hope to deliver before the end of the current session of Parliament.
It is clear to me, however, that given the scale of the challenge that is ahead of us, and the timescales that we think will be involved, we will not be able to deliver all the legislation that we had intended to deliver. That is not simply because of pressure on parliamentary time. Just as great a consideration is, as I have said, the need for Government resources to be focused on Covid-19 matters.
The practical impact of that is that it will not, in all probability, be possible to restart, in the current parliamentary session, some of the bills that the Government decides to pause, and that other bills that we had hoped to deliver will not be introduced. I am sure that Parliament will understand that the same consideration will need to be given to non-Government legislation, in due course.
Members will be aware that we have already made the difficult but sensible decision not to progress with the transient visitor levy bill at this time. I also advise members that we do not now intend to introduce in this parliamentary session the good food nation and circular economy bills, which were scheduled to be introduced shortly. All three are important bills, but the current emergency, its unknown timescales and consequences, and the need to prioritise mean that—very regrettably—we need to pare back legislation and focus on the immediate term. The Government will reflect further on that when determining the shape of our year 5 programme.
I also advise Parliament that, as we focus our energies on responding to the challenges that are caused by the pandemic, it is, regrettably, the case that work in Government is being halted—for now—on planned bills on moveable transactions, on reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and on fox control. I am afraid that that is an unavoidable consequence of focusing resources on efforts to deal with the virus.
As the Covid-19 crisis unfolds, there might well be more difficult decisions to come, so I undertake that we will maintain lines of communication with the relevant committees and wider Parliament as we are able, and that a revised programme will be published in September, as we enter the final year of this session of Parliament.
I understand that the need to pause or delay aspects of our legislative programme will be deeply disappointing, and that those who have waited a long time for the reforms will be frustrated that we can no longer achieve all that we wanted to achieve. However, this is a challenging time for us all, and there will be many more challenges ahead. The Government is taking a pragmatic but essential approach.
I know that members will have questions; I will do my best to respond to them.