Chamber and committees

All the points on the Scottish Law Commission that the previous committee made in its legacy paper have been listened to and taken on board by the Government. I know that the issue has been an open sore for the committee and the Scottish Law Commission for a wee while. The bill on moveable transactions will probably come to this committee, when we take it forward.

This year’s programme for government announced quite a few SLC bills that will be going through. I use that as an example of the Government listening. It is a good news story; we have listened to what the committee said and implemented it through the programme for government. I probably have the dates for the moveable transactions legislation here somewhere but, to make sure that I give them to you accurately, I will get that information to the committee at a later date.

That would be fine. I can give the committee the list of what we are doing, and we can take it from there.

Are you talking about the 28-day issue?

Again, Mr Simpson, we are faced with differences in interpretation. We are trying to make sure that key groups are vaccinated and have certification. We are facing an important and serious health scare.

My interpretation of what is needed is the opposite of what Graham Simpson said, because key groups of people need to be vaccinated and the whole idea of Covid certification is to ensure that those key groups are vaccinated and safe.

I cannot give that information off the top of my head, but I can get back to the committee in writing. Obviously, I am performing without a net today—I have only a couple of officials with me. I will get that information to the committee as soon as possible.

The data will be that which is already on NHS Scotland about their double vaccination. That is it. It is a QR code and no data will go back and forth. It is the equivalent of a green tick to show that the person has been double vaccinated.

I will need to get back to you on that. I do not think so, but I would need to double check.

The best way to explain it is that it will be very similar to what happens at modern football matches. That is my interpretation. There is effectively a barcode or QR code with your ticket, and you put it through the turnstile to get access and go through. There are hand-held devices that are available to do that.

That technology is already used regularly to do that with information. When that happens at a football game, nobody’s data is transferred over, other than what is held, if it is a season ticket, by the club itself.

We aim continually to analyse and prioritise the legislative programme, taking into account the Scottish Government’s legal and policy capacity and the Parliament’s scrutiny capacity. That has helped us to avoid having to continuously stop and restart the legislative programme and avoid peaks and troughs. As you will be aware, we tend generally not to put too many SSIs through the system at the one time, to ensure that it balances out over the period. This committee would be extremely busy if we just did them all at the one time.

Yes, I do, because I do not want to see Graeme Dey ever getting the better of me.