Chamber and committees

My question, though, is: what difference would the bill have made to the impact of Covid and the decisions made during that time?

I will be brief. My interest lies in the impact of Covid. Before the pandemic, business debt and personal debt were being managed, but the impact of Covid has put a lot of strain on that. I know that we are talking about having a moratorium that would enable people to get back on to an even keel. However, at the end of the day, bankruptcy is about trading while insolvent, so how do we square that circle? How do we enable people to get back on an even keel if that means that they might potentially be trading while insolvent during that period?

Finally, on that point, leaving aside the £5,000 threshold, which it has been suggested is perhaps too low, should the bill contain anything to do with the issue that I spoke about with regard to the time to address the way in which Covid has impacted on debt?

Perhaps I can move to Professor de Londras for my next question. Now that we understand what legislation is required to address the pandemic, would it not be more appropriate for it to lie dormant now and give the Parliament the potential to resurrect it quickly, as we have done in the past, should such a pandemic come along?

I turn to Anthony Smith for my final question. One of the concerns is that the impact of Covid restrictions on non-Covid health issues is still being collated. What are your views on the impact of bringing in this legislation before we can make any judgments in that respect? The use of the word “proportionate” with regard to the restrictions that the Scottish ministers might be required to bring in is, I suggest, subjective, and I feel that, under such a provision, they would not have to seek any advice. For example, with any requirement to submit to certain medical interventions, such a judgment will be subjective—albeit that the threshold might be higher—and the Scottish ministers will be able to make those decisions on their own.

I am happy to leave it there, convener.

Does any other witness want to comment on that?

Deputy First Minister, I vividly remember your bringing the emergency powers to the chamber, and quite rightly you had universal support from across the chamber for those emergency powers, given the situation that you faced at the time. However, you and the First Minister have said that the powers would be used only if appropriate, that they would be kept for the minimum amount of time and that they would face parliamentary scrutiny as quickly as possible. I remember how quickly the emergency powers were brought into being, when they were brought before the Parliament and voted on.

As my colleague Murdo Fraser says, we are in a different time now. The Government should not hold such powers unless absolutely necessary. Given that you could bring the measures back before the Parliament and given that the emergency powers could be reinstated very quickly if required, along with my colleague, I will have to oppose the motion.

I will finish my line of questioning. You got to the point that I was hoping to get to, Professor Elder: the IT system that underpins the health service and the direction of the service is outdated. That has not just happened during Covid; we discussed the matter, before Covid, in the Health and Sport Committee. Given that we are the COVID-19 Recovery Committee, I want to explore whether we should invest in an IT system that covers the whole NHS and clinical system. That would give us an ability to better respond to a future pandemic and, more generally, to understand what is happening in non-Covid conditions. Should we do that? Dr Thomson, your hand went up quickly.

I had actually written down a note about the interface between primary and secondary care being part of the solution.

You highlighted that there is no universal system for the NHS to access. Presumably, then, you would ask for exactly that: a system—even a multilayered one—that clinicians can access. That would have a positive impact on the ability to care.