Chamber and committees

I hope that the amendments that I have announced this afternoon, together with the further points that were made in the stage 1 report in relation to the Henry VIII powers and the introduction of a gateway provision, demonstrate the Government’s willingness to listen to Parliament as we bring forward necessary measures that are required to ensure that we have adequate protection in place for a future pandemic, but which—crucially—pay respect to and observe the importance of parliamentary accountability.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees to the general principles of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill.

Will the member take an intervention?

I have explained with care to Parliament that, in response to exactly the feedback that Jackie Baillie has mentioned, the Government will substantively amend the bill, given the necessity of ensuring greater parliamentary oversight and prior decision making. I hope that that makes a substantial difference to the Labour Party’s thinking and that Labour members will approach the legislation that is before Parliament with an open mind.

I encourage Alex Cole-Hamilton to listen to the arguments that I will develop during this opening speech, but I do not accept that there is material that we do not need to legislate for to enable us to prepare for future pandemics, because we can foresee a lot of what will emerge in that respect.

I and my ministerial colleagues have read with interest the recommendations that are contained in the various committees’ stage 1 reports. Although there are some recommendations that we are not persuaded are necessary, there are places where we agree that change may be needed, and we are now actively considering appropriate amendments at stage 2.

The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee’s report recommended that an explanation of the requirement for urgency be added when the made affirmative procedure is to be used for powers that are taken in the bill. I agree that it is appropriate to explain why regulations require to be made urgently, so the Government will lodge an amendment to that effect at stage 2. I can also confirm that my officials are working with parliamentary counterparts to develop a protocol for an expedited draft affirmative procedure, to be used in appropriate cases.

In relation to the proposed powers to modify primary legislation through future public health protection regulations—the so-called Henry VIII powers—I remain of the view that those powers are appropriate and that their use is already subject to significant safeguards. However, having considered the views of members, we will lodge amendments at stage 2 to add the further restriction that the powers will be available only when ministers make regulations under the draft affirmative procedure. That would mean that parliamentary approval would have to be in place before any modification to primary legislation took place.

I hope that Mr Greene will forgive me, but I have a lot of material to put on the record.

The second point that I recognise is the need for future action by ministers to be grounded in evidence. Throughout the Covid pandemic, decision making was guided by the advice of our chief medical officer and other advisers, as members saw most recently when key scientific evidence concerning the potential impacts of the omicron variant was provided to the Parliament in December.

Thirdly, I have acknowledged that there is a need to involve Parliament in decision making more effectively than was originally proposed. The need for swift and effective action in the event of a future public health threat must be balanced by proper parliamentary scrutiny.

Drawing those three points together, I consider that the most appropriate approach is to enact the necessary legislative framework now but to insert a mechanism that requires Parliament to authorise the use of such powers in a specific circumstance. We need the ability to co-ordinate a national public health response that could supplement local action that is already possible under existing public health legislation, and we also need adequate parliamentary oversight.

To ensure that the necessary parliamentary oversight is in place, the Government will lodge amendments to introduce a gateway vote mechanism, which would mean that key aspects of the public health protection and educational continuity powers would have effect only if a parliamentary vote on a formal Government declaration was held and the declaration approved. That would allow the Parliament to enact these powers with the confidence that lockdown, school closure and other emergency response measures could be imposed only in the event of a future public health threat—and in an emergency situation—if the Parliament has so authorised.

I do not consider that the standing preparedness measures would be subject to the gateway control, because they would be resilience preparations that would be the subject of regulations under the draft affirmative procedure and would be approved by Parliament before they were enacted. They cannot objectively be described as emergency measures. That capability is an important measure in our response toolkit. The powers to make such measures have not been available in Scotland as they have been in England and Wales, and the bill already sets out sufficient safeguards for their use, including, of course, parliamentary approval under the draft affirmative procedure.

Consideration will also need to be given to exceptional circumstances in which Parliament cannot meet—for example, when it has been dissolved in the pre-election period. I will provide members with more details at stage 2, for scrutiny at that point. Building on the practices with which we have become familiar through the Covid pandemic and the need that I have identified for an appropriate evidence base, the Government declaration underpinning those issues would rely on the advice of the chief medical officer.

Or dentistry.

Not in the slightest.

That would require us to configure the national health service around the circumstances of a few—I do not know how many; perhaps 1,000 or 10,000—individual patients, as opposed to trying to ensure that every patient gets the treatment that they require.

We have circumstances just now in which, unfortunately, individuals with complex healthcare needs have to have a range of different specialist interventions to meet their needs. I can only give a personal observation on this: I do not have healthcare issues, thankfully, but if I did, I would want to see a person who knows what they are doing. With all the greatest respect to Professor Leitch, I am not going to consult him on, say, open heart surgery.

There is a fine line to be walked. We want to retain as much of the really good strength and capabilities that have been built up in the testing infrastructure, but if we move away from that scale of testing infrastructure in the country, some people will undoubtedly become available for employment. We have to work with individuals to ensure that they are appropriately trained and skilled to remain in the labour market, albeit that they might be undertaking different tasks. The Government’s economic objectives are about maximising economic participation by those who are able to participate, hence the pilot projects that we are undertaking to tackle the levels of economic inactivity in Scotland. We want to reduce those levels and expand the size of the working-age population.

Based on the best measures that we have for the prevalence of the virus, we are in an improving position, with one in 19 of the population having the virus. I think further data on that will come from the ONS survey tomorrow.