Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 12 May 2022.

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Photo of Alex Cole-Hamilton Alex Cole-Hamilton Liberal Democrat

First, I contend that the bill is not a mirror image of the legislation that applies south of the border, which Liberal Democrats there opposed.

Let us be honest: the Scottish Government centralises power at its leisure. It has taken every opportunity to transfer control from local authorities to St Andrew’s house. There can be absolutely no justification for the Executive permanently retaining the ability to shut schools, release prisoners and impose lockdowns. The thought of that is still quite alarming.

We could not have legislated for everything that we needed to do to enable us to respond to Covid-19 before we had heard of it, any more than we can now legislate for the next variant of the virus or perhaps the next pandemic that might come down the track. As other members, particularly Murdo Fraser, have said, it would be far better to instruct civil servants now to prepare draft legislation—a toolkit—to put on the shelf, to be ready for such an eventuality. The power to make changes to our justice or education systems, for example, should come from the ground up. It should lie with people who understand those systems, have existing responsibility for managing them and are able to monitor the impact of any changes that are made.

If the powers contained in the bill were to be used in the future without the scrutiny and unanimous backing of the Parliament, public support for necessary measures would immediately be undermined. Even with the concessions that have been announced today, the Parliament would not be able to amend such strictures.

If the Government will not take my word for it, perhaps it will listen to Michael Russell, who said during the stage 3 debate on the Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill that it was important for the Scottish people to see the unanimous support of their Parliament for the action that was being taken. That cannot be guaranteed with what is proposed. It was important then, as it is now and ever shall be in the future.

The bill has been badly thought out and the Government’s argument for it is paper thin. The Deputy First Minister said that it will allow the Government to speed up “sufficient comprehensive action” in the event of a future pandemic or public health emergency. However, in March 2020, faced with an unprecedented situation and without access to many of the facts, Parliament was able to pass the necessary legislation in a matter of days.

There is no guarantee that the measures in the bill would even be helpful in the face of a future, different virus. As I have said, it would be far more appropriate to draft primary legislation that would be ready to go at a moment’s notice. That way, Parliament would only need to decide which and whatever powers in the draft legislation were necessary and proportionate, without the need to write them from scratch. That is not just my view; the Criminal Justice Committee has also posed that as an alternative.

To be clear, I am all for the Government having a better plan for future pandemics. Its silver swan strategy planned for the wrong type of pandemic. It overlooked care homes and did not even mention testing. We need something better, but this bill is not it. Let us not forget that, during the recent pandemic, the Government needed the scrutiny of Parliament to prevent it from taking the gratuitous step of stopping jury trials for the first time in 800 years. The scrutiny of the Parliament really matters.

Nicola Sturgeon has said many times that she did not want the powers for a moment longer than necessary, and yet here we are. The SNP talks a good game about the importance of democracy when it suits it, but the bill demonstrates that it does not possess the necessary wisdom and humility to safeguard it. The Liberal Democrats see it as one of our core duties to stand up for civil liberties and democracy—the clue is in our name. Therefore, we whole-heartedly reject this power grab and the cynical and, quite frankly, chilling politics that it represents.