Chamber and committees

COVID Vaccine Passports

Letter from the Convener to Minister for Parliamentary Business, 16 September 2021

Dear George,

Firstly, can I thank you for your very helpful evidence at Tuesday’s meeting of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. I appreciate that the technology did not work as smoothly as we would have hoped for your officials appearing remotely but the Committee was grateful for your clear desire to have an open and positive dialogue as we begin the Session. The Committee shares that ambition.

You will recall that we agreed that a number of questions might be followed up in writing. I have split these questions into two separate lists below.

I would firstly be grateful for a response by Friday 24 September to the following questions regarding how the proposed vaccine certification scheme might work in practice:

• Will the data required for the scheme include a person’s photograph?
• How will a venue or event covered by the scheme establish that the QR code provided by a member of the public matches the identity of that person?
• What information about that person's identity will be seen by staff at the venue or event?

Secondly, I would be grateful if you could respond to these remaining questions by Friday 15 October:

Secondary legislation

• Of the Covid SSIs that were laid in the past 18 months, how many SSIs are still live, and how many have been superseded or are no longer used?

In addition to your update on a number of packages of SSIs implementing a range of Acts of the Scottish Parliament from Session 5, the Committee would be grateful for a more detailed note of these and any other packages of secondary legislation. This should specifically include details of the remaining commencement plans, including timings, for the:

• Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018;
• Planning (Scotland) Act 2019; and
• Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.

Whether you intend to write to the Committee every three months to inform it of the Scottish Government's secondary legislation plans for the coming quarter?

• Scottish Law Commission
• When will the proposed Moveable Transactions Bill be introduced?
• When will the commencement regulations for the Prescription (Scotland) Act 2018 be laid?
• Which Scottish Law Commission (SLC) reports does the Scottish Government intend to implement in the current Session and when does it envisage each of them being introduced?
• What is the Scottish Government’s plans for the remaining SLC reports highlighted in a recent letter from the Interim Chief Executive of the Commission?
• Finally, you mentioned that in relation to future Scottish Government bills you do not currently anticipate that any highlighted in the Programme for Government will have significant delegated powers. However, should that position change I would be grateful if you could update the Committee to ensure, as you noted yourself, that there “are no surprises.”

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart McMillan MSP

Convener of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee