Question reference: S6W-04140
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 5 November 2021
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 December 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) Police Scotland and (b) businesses about any potential circulation of counterfeit vaccine passports.
Answer
Ministers and officials are in regular contact with Police Scotland and other stakeholders on a range of issues associated with the COVID-19 Status Certification scheme, which includes but not limited to security of the certification.
The app has a number of counter fraud elements built in. This includes a secure QR code, visual motion elements including a ‘shimmer’ icon, and a clock showing the current time which protects against screenshots being presented as certificates. In addition, we have a secure identification verification process.
Although not a requirement for business to use, we also encourage use of the NHS Scotland Covid Check App as it is specifically designed to verify the authenticity of a certificate by checking that the QR code was issued by a trusted authority (e.g. NHS Scotland, or any of the countries linked to the EU Digital Covid Certificate).