Chamber and committees

I invite the Deputy First Minister to respond to the contributions that have been made.

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

Motion agreed to,

That the COVID-19 Recovery Committee recommends that the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 4) Regulations 2022 [draft] be approved.

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

That concludes our consideration of the agenda item and our time with the Deputy First Minister. I thank him and his supporting officials for attending.

The committee’s next meeting will be on 3 March, when we will take evidence from stakeholders on the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill.

That concludes the public part of our meeting.

Good morning, and welcome to the sixth meeting in 2022 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee. This morning, we will take evidence on excess deaths in Scotland since the start of the pandemic.

I welcome to the meeting Professor Andrew Elder, president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh; Dr John Thomson, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in Scotland; Dr David Shackles, joint chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland; and Dr Barbara Miles, president of the Scottish Intensive Care Society. I thank the witnesses for giving us their time and for providing written evidence to the committee.

This session will be the first of two evidence sessions with stakeholders as part of the excess deaths inquiry. Then, on 17 March, we will hear from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and from Public Health Scotland.

Each member will have approximately 12 minutes to speak to the witnesses and ask their questions. We should be okay for time this morning, but I apologise in advance if time runs on too much and I have to interrupt members or witnesses in the interests of brevity.

I ask our witnesses to say a few words to introduce themselves.

I will bring in Jim Fairlie. I cut you short, but I should not have done, because we actually had more time than we had thought. However, we really are short of time now.

Thank you very much. I know that others wanted to come in, but, unfortunately, we have run out of time. I thank all the witnesses for their evidence and for giving us their time this morning. If witnesses would like to raise further evidence with the committee, they can do so in writing and the clerks will be happy to liaise with you in that regard.

I will briefly suspend the meeting to allow a changeover of witnesses.

Good morning, and welcome to the fourth meeting in 2022 of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee.

The first item on the agenda is consideration of the latest ministerial statement on Covid-19 and subordinate legislation. I welcome the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery, John Swinney, and his supporting official, Professor Jason Leitch, who is the national clinical director. I invite the Deputy First Minister to make some remarks before we move on to questions.

Let us turn to the issue of hybrid working as we move forward. I think that we all recognise that there have been huge advantages to the flexibility of hybrid working, but, on the flipside, it can be difficult for employers and people who struggle to work from home, and there is a long-term impact on footfall in our town centres, for example. How is the Scottish Government assessing the risks and benefits of people returning to work and the long-term vision for hybrid working?

I totally agree. In South Ayrshire, we are looking at repurposing Ayr town centre to bring in residential and leisure elements as well.

We move to questions from Murdo Fraser.

I will ask the first question. It is very welcome news that we are moving into a different phase of the pandemic. Although this committee is called the COVID-19 Recovery Committee, since our establishment, we have been dealing with the fluid situation of Covid and have not been able to focus on recovery. As we are moving into a different phase, is it time to stop publishing the daily figures?