Chamber and committees

Welcome back, for the third time. I apologise for the technical issues this morning. I hope that those are resolved. Professor Morris, can you hear me?

No, no—that is fine. At least we can hear you now. Thank you so much for joining us. We are now short of time, so members will have only about four minutes each for questions. The Deputy First Minister is coming to the committee at 9.45, so I apologise in advance that I might have to interrupt you and members in the interest of brevity. Professor Morris, please briefly introduce yourself and the work of the standing committee.

I will begin with the first question. Thank you for the interim report that your committee has published. I note that the full report will be published this time next year. The first thing that struck me was the first paragraph in the introduction, which says that

“Pandemics are inevitable and likely to occur more frequently in the future than in the past.”

Why will they occur more frequently in the future? Is it anticipated that they will be as severe as the Covid-19 pandemic?

Professor, you raised various valid points there. We might have time for supplementaries after questions from John Mason.

In the previous evidence session this morning, we had Professor Andrew Morris, who published the interim report on pandemic preparedness. There are four big-ticket recommendations in that report. Will those recommendations be reflected in the next budget?

I am sorry, but I am going to go to Mr Mason. Once we have gone round the other members, I will come back to you. Thank you.

Welcome to the 21st meeting in 2022 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee. The first item of business is pre-budget scrutiny. The committee has agreed to focus its pre-budget scrutiny on how the Scottish Government plans to fund its Covid recovery strategy and the on-going costs that are associated with the pandemic as set out in the Covid-19 strategic framework. We will begin this morning’s meeting by discussing the work of the Scottish Government’s Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness, which published an interim report on 30 August 2022.

I welcome to the meeting Professor Andrew Morris, the chair of the Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness, who joins us remotely. I thank him for giving us his time this morning. Each member will have approximately seven minutes to speak to Professor Morris and ask questions. We are due to speak to the Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, at 9.45, so I apologise in advance if time runs on too much and I have to interrupt members or Professor Morris in the interest of brevity.

Professor Morris, I invite you to briefly introduce yourself and the work of the standing committee. [Interruption.]

I think that there might be some technical issues. Professor Morris, can you hear me? Put your hand up if you can hear me, Professor Morris. He cannot hear me. We will wait one moment while we try to rectify our technical issues.

I will briefly suspend the meeting while we try to reconnect to Professor Morris.

Yes, we can hear you—fantastic. Thank you for giving us your time this morning. I just want to clarify that you can hear me.

I apologise, but we still have some technical issues, so, unfortunately, I will have to suspend the meeting again until we can rectify them.

We have three minutes left, so I will bring in Brian Whittle for a brief supplementary question.

I thank Professor Morris for his evidence and his time, and I apologise for the technical issues at the beginning of the meeting. If you would like to submit any further evidence to the committee, please do so in writing. The clerks will be happy to liaise with you on that.

I briefly suspend the meeting to allow Professor Morris to leave.