Chamber and committees

I invite the Deputy First Minister to move motion S6M-01399.

Motion moved,

That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Directions by Local Authorities) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/329) be approved.—[John Swinney]

Do members want to comment?

Do members want to comment? Mr Fraser?

There will be a division.

For

Brown, Siobhian (Ayr) (SNP)
Fairlie, Jim (Perthshire South and Kinross-shire) (SNP)
Mason, John (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP)
Rowley, Alex (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab)

Against

Fraser, Murdo (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Whittle, Brian (South Scotland) (Con)

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

Motion agreed to.

I thank the witnesses for their time and for their evidence, which has been beneficial. If any of the witnesses would like to share further evidence, they can do so by writing to the committee. The clerks will be happy to liaise with them about how to do that.

The committee’s next meeting will be on 11 November, when we will continue taking evidence on baseline health protection measures.

Thank you, Deputy First Minister. I will ask a few questions first.

I thank you for your response to our letter on the vaccination passport regulations. In your letter, you stated:

“it is not possible to establish the individual impact of this scheme on changes in transmission of the virus.”

Given that reducing transmission is one of the scheme’s aims, will you clarify how you are monitoring the scheme’s impact on reducing transmission?

I will bring in Graham Simpson, but I must ask him to be very brief, as we are running short of time and, in fact, should have finished by now.

We will now consider the next motion under the agenda item, and I invite the Deputy First Minister to move motion S6M-01529.

Motion moved,

That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/349) be approved.—[John Swinney]

We move to agenda item 4, under which we are taking evidence on baseline health protection measures from a panel of ventilation experts. I welcome Dr Hywel Davies, who is the technical director of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers; Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, who is the director of the Centre for Climate Repair at the University of Cambridge; Professor Catherine Noakes, who is the professor of environmental engineering for buildings at the University of Leeds; and Professor Tim Sharpe, who is the head of architecture at the University of Strathclyde. We thank them all for giving us their time.

This is the first of four planned evidence sessions on baseline health protection measures, which are the main tools that we are using to respond to Covid-19. They include the steps that we are taking to enhance ventilation in our homes and workplaces and in settings where public services are delivered. This will be a short scoping session to allow us to consider the role that ventilation will play in lessening the impact of Covid-19, especially during the winter. We will also consider the role that ventilation might play in the recovery phase of the pandemic.

We hope that the session will inform further sessions that we plan to hold as part of our inquiry. We will hear from stakeholders in health and social care services, the hospitality, business and leisure sectors, and schools.

Will the witnesses briefly outline what they think are the main ventilation challenges that we should address as part of our response to Covid and our long-term recovery?