Question reference: S6W-00379
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 2 June 2021
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Current status: Answered by John Swinney on 10 June 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether an economic impact assessment has been conducted in respect to the lockdown restrictions in the Falkirk Council area, and, if so, whether it will publish this assessment.
Answer
The virus continues to have severe direct impacts on people’s health, and the potential to put significant pressures on NHS capacity. For this reason, and to tackle the new, faster-spreading Delta variant, we have made the difficult decision to delay a move to Level 1 for some Local Authorities which have displayed high or rapidly increasing levels of incidence.
The decision to allocate areas to a Level, finely balances the need to control the virus and to minimise the wider economic and social harms of the restrictions. Consideration of the economic harms from Covid (Harm 4) is factored into the design of the Levels themselves, and a 4 Harms Assessment was undertaken on these Levels when they were last updated and published.
On 1 June, we published Coronavirus (COVID-19): Protection Levels allocation to local councils which explains the basis on which Levels 2 and 1 were applied to local council areas in Scotland. The Government also has a legal duty to undertake statutory Impact Assessments when Regulations concerning the Levels are changed. These include Equalities, Islands, Child Rights/Wellbeing, and Business and Regulatory Impact Assessments, and they are now published.