Chamber and committees

We will have to strongly disagree with each other on that. My interpretation is that you have not met the tests of the 2020 act, which gives ministers the powers to do such things. We are clearly not going to agree on that.

I am speculating because we do not actually know. However, you said that you will write to us with the details.

I move on to another item. You mentioned earlier the need for clarity when you lay instruments. At committee recently, we had an interesting discussion about what constitutes dancing. You will recall that, if you are dancing in a nightclub, you do not have to wear a mask. Of course, we do not yet have a proper definition of a nightclub, let alone dancing. The Government came back to us and said that dancing is a form of exercise, so it will fall into that category. As Craig Hoy then pointed out, somebody could be dancing in a supermarket aisle and could take their mask off. That is why there is a need for clarity. Have you defined what is meant by dancing?

That was the problem with the way that the law was framed, which was why we raised the issue. We are joking about it, but it is a serious matter that, when we write law, it needs to make sense and be understood, and there should not be loopholes.

I found Graeme Dey and his predecessor, Joe FitzPatrick, to be very good to work with. When they appeared at the committee, we had a very cordial relationship and they knew the committee’s requirements.

We had some correspondence with you last week about the vaccination passport debate and the proposal from the Scottish Government to introduce a requirement for vaccine certification at certain events. You will have seen our annual report from the previous parliamentary session in which we expressed some concern, shall we say, over the number of made affirmative regulations that were being approved. For anyone who is watching, I note that that is when the Government brings in a law without its having been scrutinised by the Parliament; the scrutiny comes later. Most parliamentarians accept that there has been a need to use that procedure during Covid, but there has been a large number of such instruments.

We wrote to you about the proposal for vaccine passports. That might not be the term that you use, but that is the term that I use. We know what we are talking about. You wrote back to us on 9 September—it was a quick turnaround—and in that letter you said that if there were to be regulations, which there would have to be if the proposal comes in, your view is that the made affirmative procedure should still be used despite there being weeks to prepare. Is that still your position?

It would be useful for the committee to have something from you about which SLC reports you anticipate implementing and which you do not. Then we will know what we are working with.

That would be useful.

When we had a private meeting with your officials, we asked about the area of questioning that Mr Sweeney has just covered. We specifically asked whether the Government could provide us with a list of outstanding regulations that flow from acts that have been passed and I am not sure that we have seen that. Mr Sweeney mentioned the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, but there will be a number of others. I think that there is still some stuff outstanding from the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019. It would be useful to have that list, if we could.

I will move on to discuss the Scottish Law Commission. As you know, the committee works closely with the SLC, as do you, and there has been long-standing frustration from the SLC—and from us, but particularly from the SLC—about the amount of work that it has done and the number of reports that it has produced that have just stacked up and not resulted in legislation.

The SLC has provided us with a list of about 18 of its reports dating back as far as 2006 that have not ended up as legislation, covering things from electoral law to level crossings. All kinds of serious work has gone on and the SLC and the committee are very frustrated. In the previous parliamentary session, the committee worked with the Parliament on a set of protocols that would allow the committee to take on more bills, if they were presented. That would help the Parliament to get stuff through.

The programme for government said that the Government wants to do something on moveable transactions. When do you see that legislation being introduced and would it be a bill that meets the criteria for it to be considered by this committee?

I want to follow up on that. Like the minister, I am a football fan. If I go to a football match, I show somebody at the gate my QR code, and he or she scans it into their personal mobile phone. That is what it will be—that is what the Government said last week. My concern is that my name, address and date of birth could show up on that person’s mobile phone. That, to me, is a breach of my data.

Do you anticipate all of those coming in this calendar year or within the next 12 months?