Chamber and committees

Good morning and welcome to the 17th meeting of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee in 2022. This morning, we continue our inquiry into the communication of Covid-19 public health information. Unfortunately, Danny Boyle from BEMIS has had to offer his apologies. Murdo Fraser is running slightly late, but should be with us within 10 minutes.

I welcome Adam Stachura, head of policy and communications at Age Scotland; Gillian McElroy, policy and information officer at Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland; Dr Sally Witcher OBE, chair of the Scottish Commission on Social Security; and Professor Jill Pell, director of the institute of health and wellbeing at the University of Glasgow. Thank you for giving us your time this morning and for all your written submissions.

Our inquiry has three aims, and this evidence session is focused on the second aim, which is to consider whether public health information about Covid-19 is accessible to and meets the needs of specific audiences, including people in the shielding category and communities where there has been below average take-up of vaccination.

This evidence session will be the final stakeholder evidence session before we hear from the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport on 30 June. We estimate that today’s session will run until 11 o’clock, and each member will have approximately 14 minutes to speak to the panel and ask questions. If you would like to respond to any issue being discussed, press R in the chat box, and we will try to bring you in. I am keen to ensure that everybody gets an opportunity to speak, but if time runs on too much, I may have to interrupt members and witnesses in the interests of brevity, so I apologise for that in advance.

Just to clarify, Dr Sally Witcher is attending in a personal capacity.

I invite witnesses to briefly introduce themselves.

Thank you, Dr Witcher, and apologies for misrepresenting the capacity in which you are appearing. That was my fault—I was going by the briefing that I had. We acknowledge that you are here in your personal capacity.

The question is, that amendment 25 be agreed to. Are we agreed?

Members: No.

The result of the division is: For 5, Against 1, Abstentions 0.

Amendment 25 agreed to.

Amendment 26 moved—[John Swinney].

There will be a division.

For

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

Against

Brown, Siobhian (Ayr) (SNP)
Fairlie, Jim (Perthshire South and Kinross-shire) (SNP)
Mason, John (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP)

The result of the division is: For 3, Against 3, Abstentions 0.

As the result is a tie, I will use my casting vote as convener so that the committee can reach a decision. I will vote against the amendment.

Amendment 11 disagreed to.

Amendment 6 moved—[Murdo Fraser].

The question is, that amendment 28 be agreed to. Are we agreed?

Members: No.

There will be a division.

For

Brown, Siobhian (Ayr) (SNP)
Fairlie, Jim (Perthshire South and Kinross-shire) (SNP)
Fraser, Murdo (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Mason, John (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP)
Whittle, Brian (South Scotland) (Con)

Against

Rowley, Alex (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab)

There will be a division.

For

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

Against

Brown, Siobhian (Ayr) (SNP)
Fairlie, Jim (Perthshire South and Kinross-shire) (SNP)
Mason, John (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP)

The result of the division is: For 3, Against 3, Abstentions 0.

As the result is a tie, I will use my casting vote as convener to vote against the amendment.

Amendment 7 disagreed to.