Scottish businesses slam Nicola Sturgeon's Covid vaccine passports

‘It’s a Christmas nightmare’: Scottish businesses slam Nicola Sturgeon as they say Covid vaccine passports are a ‘hammer blow’ to the industry ahead of announcement TODAY

  • Nicola Sturgeon set to expand Covid vaccine passports to pubs and cinemas  
  • Any changes to current restrictions to come into force from December 8 
  • The First Minister suggested last week that the scheme could be expanded
  • However, business leaders have warned of ‘economic damage’ it will cause
  • Plans have also been criticised by opposition MPs who called scheme ‘wrong’

Scottish businesses have slammed Nicola Sturgeon’s plan to extend controversial Covid vaccine passports to pubs, cinemas and theatres as they called the curbs a ‘hammer blow’ to the industry.  

The First Minister is expected to expand the Covid ID cards scheme which currently covers nightclubs and large venues to a host of other hospitality businesses at a briefing to Holyrood at 2pm today.

Any changes to current Covid restrictions in Scotland are said to come into force from December 8 onwards. 

Ms Sturgeon suggested last week that the scheme could be expanded, warning: ‘All of our decisions are, and must be motivated by a desire to keep people safe, but also to get through what will be a challenging winter, without having to reintroduce any restrictions on trade’.

However, business leaders are urging the First Minister to ‘seriously consider the economic damage’ further restrictions could have on hospitality venues, warning the measure will create a ‘Christmas nightmare’.  

Plans to extend the passport scheme in Scotland have also been criticised by opposition MPs who claim the measure would heap further pressure on businesses decimated during the pandemic.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross called the scheme ‘absolutely wrong’ and insisted that the Government’s own 70-page evidence paper on the application of passports demonstrated that there is ‘no evidence to suggest vaccine passports do anything to stop the spread of Covid-19’.   

Scotland has recorded 2,677 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours but no new deaths, according to the latest data.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon attends First Minster’s Questions in the debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh

The First Minister is expected to announce an extension of controversial Covid vaccine passports which currently cover nightclubs and large venues to pubs, cinemas and theatres at a briefing at 2pm today

WALES

MPs in Wales have voted to extend controversial Covid passports to cinemas, theatres and concert halls. 

From November 15, entry to cinemas, theatres and concert halls has been regulated by the scheme after members of the Welsh Parliament dramatically approved the extension to mixed reaction. 

People were previously required to show they are fully vaccinated or have tested negative for the virus to enter nightclubs and similar venues since last month. 

The new law brought by the Labour government passed with 39 Members of the Senedd voting for and 15 against, with the Welsh Conservatives and Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds opposed.  

Officials insisted that the Covid passport was popular, with Health Minister Eluned Morgan saying the extension was designed to keep cinemas and theatres open over the winter months. 

NORTHERN IRELAND 

Covid vaccine passports will be compulsory in Northern Ireland next month after Stormont ministers backed the measure.  

People in the UK province will have to provide a passport or proof of a negative Covid test result to access hospitality venues including nightclubs, pubs or restaurants from December 13. 

Speaking after the snap vote, Northern Ireland’s Health Minister Robin Swann said he was trying to avoid the need for restrictions this winter, including a full lockdown, and insisted ministers ‘have to act’.

‘Our Covid numbers are too high and we need to forcibly push them down,’ he told reporters. ‘Our health and social care system is under severe stress.’ 

ENGLAND

Westminster ministers have so far refrained from introducing compulsory Covid passports amid privacy and civil liberty concerns.

The Government dramatically ditched plans to adopt certification rules for nightclubs and other major venues following a huge Tory outcry.

But Downing Street confirmed venues will be told to implement the measure if the NHS comes under ‘unsustainable pressure’ this autumn or winter.     

Plan B – which ministers hope will be enough to stop the country from succumbing to another full-blown lockdown – also includes re-enforcing face masks indoors and work from home guidance.

Proposals published by the Department of Health have now revealed more details of the passport scheme, and warn it could be implemented ‘at short notice in response to concerning data’. 

In Wales, Covid passes have been required for entry to cinemas, theatres and concert halls since November 13 after MPs voted to extend the measures. And in Northern Ireland from next month, vaccine passports will be compulsory to enter nightclubs, pubs and restaurants.  

Though the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has so far refrained from introducing Covid passports in England, Downing Street has warned that the measure could be imposed in the event of a winter crisis.

In a letter to Ms Sturgeon, Dr Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said Scottish businesses remain ‘unconvinced’ that the public health benefits of an extension to Scotland’s Covid scheme outweigh the negatives for individuals, businesses and the economy. 

She said the Scottish Government has also failed to demonstrate that ‘workplace transmission’ is happening in office settings, and said further encouragement of the work from home scheme will have a devastating impact on city centre economies.

In response, a Scottish Government spokesperson said encouraging working from home is ‘an important mitigation in controlling the virus’ and to minimise other economic and social restrictions.

Industry bosses, such as Michael Bergson from Buck’s Bar in Glasgow, have branded the plans a ‘Christmas nightmare’.

He said businesses like his fear losing out on much needed trade, adding: ‘It just felt like we were getting somewhere, where we were going to have a good Christmas, shops are getting busier, bars and restaurants are getting busier, we really need it, so for them to just come in with this hammer blow right at the start of December would be unbearable for a lot of licensed premises.’

Just last week, an evidence paper claimed that whilst an extension to the vaccine passport system could well see an increase in vaccination rates among older age groups, businesses could face considerable costs to implement it.

The report points to a need to employ more staff and purchase new hardware to scan passports, as well as lost revenue where customers may simply choose to go to venues where the rules don’t apply. But the authors also concluded that costs incurred would be better than the alternative – that being another coronavirus lockdown.  

The Scottish Government’s evidence paper states that extending the passport scheme to new settings could have a major impact on revenue and footfall for those businesses that could be added to the scheme.

‘Options that include proof of negative Covid test results (e.g. lateral flow tests) would offset economic harm to a degree because it would increase the number of potential customers able to access the venues (given that not all people eligible to have double vaccination have done so, for a variety of reasons),’ it says.

‘This would apply to business affected by potential expansion of the scheme, and those that already fall within existing requirements.’

However, Mr Ross told BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show that the main concern was continued uncertainty for hard-hit businesses.

‘Where’s the evidence that these vaccine passports actually work? [The Scottish government’s] own 70-page document can’t tell us and I think this is absolutely wrong to be putting this added pressure and burden onto businesses at such short notice,’ he said.

‘We know from many studies already that businesses are strongly opposed to any extension, and we’ve had no idea apart from the First Minister and Deputy First Minister saying some other hospitality venues may be affected, which ones?

‘I’ve asked two weeks running, ”which businesses should be preparing for the expansion of the vaccine passport scheme?” and the failed to tell those businesses, therefore they can’t prepare properly.’  

Another 44,917 infections were recorded in the last 24 hours. Deaths have fallen to their lowest since start of month. And hospitalisations have fallen by 10 per cent week-on-week

Do a Covid test before Christmas shopping: Government issues new advice to take a lateral flow test before heading to crowded places in bid to prevent fourth wave this winter 

The Government has issued new advice to take a lateral flow test before heading to crowded placed to prevent a fourth wave this winter.

It is the first time Britons have been asked to take a test before going to highrisk settings – which could include busy shops and town centres.

Previously people in England were asked to take two tests a week or before meeting vulnerable individuals or after visiting a highrisk place, but not before.

The new guidance also covers indoor settings such as sporting events and music concerts, according to the i newspaper .

The Cabinet Office guidance also warned being in busy indoor places carries a higher risk of catching or passing on Covid-19.

Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said vaccine passports should be abolished and demanded a full parliamentary vote before any changes to coronavirus restrictions come into force.

He said the SNP and Greens have not provided any factual evidence to show the current Covid ID scheme is keeping Scotland safer, adding ‘no wonder it has been attacked by everyone from health experts to civil liberties groups.’

The Scottish Government said the scheme has ‘likely contributed to a small rise in vaccinations’ in younger Scots, and suggested that expanding the scheme could ‘increase the usefulness of certification’ in reducing transmission.

Its report said such a move would also encourage unjabbed older people to get vaccinated, as well as potentially leading ‘to a better understanding of the fact that the pandemic is still with us’.

However, civil liberties campaigners including Big Brother Watch have described the scheme as ‘coercive’ and called for it to be axed.

It comes as European governments imposed lockdowns on the unvaccinated and made vaccination compulsory amid a surge in virus cases. 

Professor Rowland Kao, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, said he believed vaccine passports ‘will contribute positively’. 

He added: ‘Civil liberties are not an absolute, we allow all sorts of restrictions on our behaviour if they have the ability to harm others.

‘We have restrictions on speed and things like seatbelts so it is not an either or, we need to do a balance between what the restrictions are doing to individuals and what the application of the measures do in terms of preventing harm to others and we know that vaccines work.’ 

Ahead of today’s announcement, a Scottish Government spokesperson said: ‘The situation around the pandemic is serious so we are being open about all of the options available to us that may be required to protect the public.’ 

Scotland’s Covid Recovery Secretary John Swinney said: ‘With cases rising gradually and pressures on our NHS, our approach is to keep people safe and get through a challenging winter without having to re-introduce any restrictions.

‘We want businesses to remain open throughout the Christmas period so it is sensible to consider options available to expand Covid certification.’

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