MSPs to vote on Scottish vaccine passport scheme

Some 68.6 per cent of the Scottish population are fully vaccinated and 90 per cent of people aged 16 and over have received a first dose

MSPs will today vote on plans to bring in vaccine passports for large events in Scotland..

The scheme, which will begin at the end of the month, will apply to nightclubs, unseated indoor events with more than 500 people in the audience, unseated outdoor events with more than 4,000 in the audience, and at any event with more than 10,000 in attendance.

While the scheme won’t apply to the hospitality industry as a whole, it will be kept under review, first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Fully vaccinated people will initially be able to show a QR code as proof of vaccination. A dedicated app for the scheme is expected to be available by the end of the month.

The proposal has proved polarising in Holyrood. Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have vowed to vote against the change.

Tory leader Douglas branded the measures an “absolute sham”. He criticised the Government’s decision to release details of the plans “just hours before Parliament is expected to vote” and said: “We need specifics but we don’t have them.

“We don’t know how the scheme will be administered or enforced. We don’t know if the data concerns have been fixed.

“We don’t know if the SNP will rule out extending them indefinitely or rolling them out to further venues at short notice.”

Alex Cole-Hamilton, the new Lib Dem leader, has urged the government to ditch plans for coronavirus vaccine passports and focus instead on an emergency recruitment campaign to bolster the “broken” contact tracing system.

Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the party had “practical concerns” and that there has only been “limited engagement with businesses about the details of the programme and how it will actually work in practice”.

However the Scottish Greens, despite being critical of vaccine passports, have signed a formal partnership agreement with the SNP and are thought to be unlikely to vote against the scheme, the BBC reported.

Some 68.6 per cent of the Scottish population are fully vaccinated and 90 per cent of people aged 16 and over have received a first dose.