Chamber and committees

The committee will publish a report to Parliament in due course, setting out its decision on the statutory instrument.

That concludes our consideration of the agenda item and our time with the Deputy First Minister. I thank him and his officials for their attendance. That concludes the public part of the meeting.

That is great. Thank you very much.

I am sorry; we do not have time for any more questions. That concludes our consideration of this agenda item. I thank the Deputy First Minister and his officials for their evidence.

As we move away from having ministerial statements on Covid-19, I especially thank the Deputy First Minister, Professor Jason Leitch, Elizabeth Blair and all the officials who have attended the committee in the past 11 months. We really appreciated you making yourselves so available to respond to our questions.

Agenda item 4 is consideration of the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment (No 6) Regulations 2022. Deputy First Minister, would you like to make any further remarks about the instrument before we take the motion?

Thank you—that is helpful.

An issue that I have brought up previously is that of how we can raise awareness of the distance aware scheme. I will share my experience. After raising the issue in the committee, I went to Asda in my constituency and was told that it no longer does the scheme. When I went to Morrisons, the staff did not know what I was talking about. I then went to one of the local libraries. The staff found a box, said, “I think this is what you’re talking about,” and gave me a lanyard. When I asked whether there was a pass or a badge to go with it, they said, “No—you just get the lanyard.” Therefore, I think that there is still a lot of work to be done, especially for those people who want other people to keep their distance and still have concerns about going out among the general public. We need to raise the general public’s awareness of the need to respect the space of such people.

How can the Scottish Government raise the profile of the distance aware scheme?

That is great—thank you. I appreciate that.

What is the Scottish Government’s assessment of current and forthcoming pressures on public services such as the health, police, fire and education services as a result of Covid-related absences?

Lateral flow tests will be provided free only when there is a requirement to test. Who funds that—is it the Scottish Government or the United Kingdom Government—and what is the projected cost?

I am sorry, Mr Rowley, but we are running out of time, and two members have still to ask questions.

Good morning, and welcome to the 13th meeting in 2022 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee. I have received apologies from Brian Whittle MSP.

Agenda item 1 was taken in private. Item 2 is a decision on whether to take in private item 6, under which we will consider our approach to the committee’s communication of public health information inquiry. Do members agree to take item 6 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Under item 3, the committee will take evidence from the Scottish Government on a Covid-19 update, two-monthly reports to the Scottish Parliament and subordinate legislation. I warmly welcome to the meeting our witnesses from the Scottish Government: the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery, John Swinney; Professor Jason Leitch, national clinical director; and Elizabeth Blair, Covid co-ordination unit head. Thank you for your attendance this morning.

Deputy First Minister, would you like to make any remarks before we move on to questions?

Thank you very much, Deputy First Minister.

We have around 50 minutes for this agenda item, so members have approximately 10 minutes each for questions and answers. Everybody should keep that in mind, please.

I will ask the first question. Yesterday, it was announced that the highest-risk list is to close on 31 May. I appreciate that the success of the vaccination roll-out means that the vast majority of people on the list are at no greater risk than the general public, but there are still people out there who will be concerned by that announcement. Was any public consultation done on that?