The SNP will press ahead with their ‘flawed and deeply unfair’ vaccine passport scheme, despite the Scottish Conservatives last-ditch attempt to scrap the scheme.
The debate was brought forward by the Scottish Conservatives as a final attempt to halt the SNP’s ‘shambolic’ plans after they refused to debate the scheme in parliament last week.
Nicola Sturgeon yesterday announced a two week grace period before the requirements are enforced - which Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross said was ‘an admission that the scheme wasn’t ready’.
Guidance on how the scheme will work in practice was also finally released yesterday, less than 72 hours before the checks come into force.
Scottish hospitality groups have complained that the guidance is still ‘very weak’ and that the exact regulations they will be facing have still not been published.
Businesses have also called for a public information campaign to inform the wider public about the new rules.
Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross said: “The SNP Government is pressing ahead with a shambles of a scheme that fails on every test.
“This flawed policy will be disastrous for businesses, for the economy, and for human rights - with no convincing evidence of public health benefits in return.
“The scheme comes into force in just a couple of days, yet businesses are still missing crucial information.
“The SNP hasn’t even bothered to run a campaign to educate the wider public about the new rules. Instead, John Swinney had the gall to suggest that opposition criticism and the debate we brought today, would generate enough ‘public attention’ for the scheme.
“The government seems determined to limit rights and freedoms without proper justification. They are becoming a rules factory, clinging onto control over people’s lives without the evidence to support their plans.
“This is a flawed and deeply unfair scheme, which, as John Swinney quietly admitted, places the onus of unworkable checks on already struggling businesses.
“The Scottish Conservatives are doing everything we can to stop the SNP-Green coalition’s passport scheme, but they are ploughing on regardless, in the face of mounting business and opposition criticism.”
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Notes: Please see below partial transcripts for Leon Thompson’s and John Swinney’s appearances on Good Morning Scotland, Wednesday 29th September.
Leon Thompson, Executive Director of UKHospitality Scotland:
Gary Robertson: So, they go around the venue at midnight checking the certificates and if someone doesn't have the correct paperwork or the correct certification, they're out?
Leon Thompson: Well, this is where the guidance is very, very weak and because it does make suggestions like that, but I mean practically that is not going to be possible.
Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery, John Swinney MSP:
Gary Roberston: As regards these regulations though, there are still gaps in the information as we heard earlier from Leon Thomson from UKHospitality Scotland. Firstly, if a bar or a venue is open beyond midnight, is it at midnight that they start checking people's passports?
John Swinney: What the regulations will say is and this is again a point that has been very visible throughout the last few weeks is that a business is required to take all reasonable measures to adhere to the scheme.
GR: That is not a regulation, is it? That is telling people, you know, you get on with it.
JS: Well, that is the format of a great deal of regulation that takes place where we put the onus onto businesses to work with local authorities and environmental health officers to work out what is an appropriate application of an individual scheme on a local level.
[...]
GR: Why no public information campaign?
JS: Well, there's been... believe me, Gary, it feels to me that there's been a lot of public attention about this. This has been a significant issue in media communication, the government could not have been more open about setting out the details of the scheme in the briefings that the First Minister gives to parliament-
GR: Yes, but with respect, Mr Swinney, not everyone is watching coverage of the parliament on an afternoon, don't you need a bigger campaign, given the amount of people who will be affected by this? The number of people who will download this app to use it?
JS: It then gets followed up by Ministers such as myself coming on to your programmes and to multiple other programmes to convey the messages and we set out all of these arguments as part of the ongoing communication of government, so there has been a huge amount of media attention to the issue of vaccine certification, it has been widely debated within parliament, it will be debated again this afternoon in parliament and it has been the subject of extensive media interaction with Ministers, so I think the information that is out there and obviously we will work with industry to make sure there is wide awareness of the details of the scheme.