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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 18 July 2025
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Displaying 2148 contributions

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COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Ministerial Statement, Coronavirus Acts Reports and Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 24 February 2022

Siobhian Brown

The result of the division is: For 4, Against 2, Abstentions 0.

Motion agreed to,

That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 4) Regulations 2022 [draft] be approved.

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Ministerial Statement, Coronavirus Acts Reports and Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 24 February 2022

Siobhian Brown

The committee will, in due course, publish a report to the Parliament setting out its decision on the statutory instrument considered under this agenda item.

That concludes our consideration of the agenda item and our time with the Deputy First Minister. I thank him and his supporting officials for attending.

The committee’s next meeting will be on 3 March, when we will take evidence from stakeholders on the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill.

That concludes the public part of our meeting.

11:33 Meeting continued in private until 11:37.  

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Excess Deaths Inquiry

Meeting date: 24 February 2022

Siobhian Brown

Good morning, and welcome to the sixth meeting in 2022 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee. This morning, we will take evidence on excess deaths in Scotland since the start of the pandemic.

I welcome to the meeting Professor Andrew Elder, president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh; Dr John Thomson, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in Scotland; Dr David Shackles, joint chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland; and Dr Barbara Miles, president of the Scottish Intensive Care Society. I thank the witnesses for giving us their time and for providing written evidence to the committee.

This session will be the first of two evidence sessions with stakeholders as part of the excess deaths inquiry. Then, on 17 March, we will hear from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and from Public Health Scotland.

Each member will have approximately 12 minutes to speak to the witnesses and ask their questions. We should be okay for time this morning, but I apologise in advance if time runs on too much and I have to interrupt members or witnesses in the interests of brevity.

I ask our witnesses to say a few words to introduce themselves.

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Excess Deaths Inquiry

Meeting date: 24 February 2022

Siobhian Brown

I will bring in Jim Fairlie. I cut you short, but I should not have done, because we actually had more time than we had thought. However, we really are short of time now.

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Excess Deaths Inquiry

Meeting date: 24 February 2022

Siobhian Brown

Thank you very much. I know that others wanted to come in, but, unfortunately, we have run out of time. I thank all the witnesses for their evidence and for giving us their time this morning. If witnesses would like to raise further evidence with the committee, they can do so in writing and the clerks will be happy to liaise with you in that regard.

I will briefly suspend the meeting to allow a changeover of witnesses.

10:25 Meeting suspended.  

10:29 On resuming—  

Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) [Draft]

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 24 February 2022

Siobhian Brown

How are university students being supported in their learning and degree progress, in light of on-going strike action?

Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Covid-19

Meeting date: 22 February 2022

Siobhian Brown

What steps is the Scottish Government taking to tackle health misinformation, especially in relation to Covid-19 vaccinations?

Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 10 February 2022

Siobhian Brown

Some of my constituents—in particular, students—have been in touch because they are starting to feel acutely the effects of the UK’s hard approach to EU relations post-Brexit, including through the loss of the Erasmus+ student exchange programme. Can the cabinet secretary provide an update on the Scottish Government’s efforts to set up an alternative that will benefit students in Scotland and across Europe?

Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 10 February 2022

Siobhian Brown

To ask the Scottish Government how it is building on Scotland’s relations with the European Union post-Brexit. (S6O-00746)

Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Coronavirus (Discretionary Compensation for Self-isolation) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Meeting date: 9 February 2022

Siobhian Brown

As convener of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee, I thank my fellow committee members and our highly professional clerking team for their work as we considered and scrutinised this bill through its different stages.

As we know, when the Public Health etc (Scotland) Act 2008 was introduced, the global Covid crisis, which we have been battling since March 2020, was not a consideration. The 2008 act simply put a duty on health boards to compensate any employee who was asked to isolate or quarantine. Given the magnitude of the pandemic and the need for so many to self-isolate at different stages, in response to different variants, it would not be reasonable to expect health boards to financially compensate workers throughout the crisis. The Coronavirus (Discretionary Compensation for Self-isolation) (Scotland) Bill allows payment to those who need it most, if they need to self-isolate. Workers should not experience financial hardship as a result of doing the right thing.

In the stage 1 debate, there was general broad support across the Parliament for the principles of the bill to be extended. The debate highlighted a number of key considerations, one of which was the level of scrutiny that is afforded when the made affirmative procedure is used. Other issues that were highlighted were awareness of the support that is available for self-isolation and the recognition of the importance of consulting health boards before implementing the measures that are set out in the bill.

The COVID-19 Recovery Committee made a recommendation in paragraph 68 of its stage 1 report that the Scottish Government should

“produce a statement of reasons”

when making emergency regulations.

The Scottish Government responded positively to that recommendation and, at stage 2, brought forward amendment 3, which improves the Scottish Government’s accountability under the bill. We thank the Scottish ministers for making that improvement to the bill—I note that the Law Society of Scotland also commended that amendment.

Our committee took evidence from the Scottish Women’s Convention, which sent out a consultation to more than 4,000 women. Only 100 women responded, and none of them had successfully accessed a self-isolation grant or local self-isolation assistance services. Those figures were from the very early days of the payment; I am aware that there has been an improvement in promoting the self-isolation grant, and most people who receive a positive test result on their mobile phone are quickly sent a link to apply for the self-isolation grant. I appreciate that not everybody has a mobile phone, and there will be groups that are difficult to access. The committee also urged the Government to consider how best to increase public awareness of the support that is available to people who are asked to self-isolate.

I am pleased that the Scottish Government’s response confirmed that those issues will be kept under regular review and that it will continue to review its public communications on self-isolation support. I welcome the fact that the Scottish Government has listened and considered the issues that were raised at stage 1, and I welcome its amendments 1 to 3 at stage 2 last week.

I believe that, as we emerge from the pandemic, reform is needed to the 2008 act to ensure that permanent support is in place in the event of another pandemic. No country worldwide has had a solid, foolproof, mistake-free guidebook on how to get a country through a pandemic, so lessons must be learned and measures put in place, in order that we are never again in the position in which the world found itself in March 2020.

I will support the bill at stage 3, as the Scottish Government continues to put measures in place to support people who need to self-isolate but not financially burden our health boards, while we continue to navigate our way out of the pandemic.

16:28