Vaccine passports will be required at nightclubs and large events such as football matches and music festivals in Scotland from next month after MSPs voted in favour of the plan.
Under the scheme, people will only be allowed in if they can produce a QR code – or paper alternative for those who need it – to be scanned through a smart phone app.
It will apply to those wishing to enter nightclubs or similar venues, adult entertainment, unseated indoor events with more than 500 people, outdoor unseated events with more than 4,000 people or any event with more than 10,000 in attendance.
Thursday’s vote was not to pass legislation, but rather to pass a motion supporting the implementation of vaccine passports. It passed by 68 votes to 55.
A paper released just hours before the vote stated there will be a legal requirement for businesses to ‘take all reasonable measures’ to ensure compliance, while ministers are also considering if there is a need for an offence to stop the ‘misuse’ of the certificates.
The paper said: ‘In line with our strategic intent to “suppress the virus to a level consistent with alleviating its harms while we recover and rebuild for a better future”, a Covid vaccine certification scheme will aid us in reducing the rate and impact of transmission.’
It added: ‘Where someone does catch the virus, being vaccinated significantly reduces the likelihood of serious harm or death and in doing so alleviate pressure on the healthcare system.
‘As a result, certification provides a targeted and proportionate means to reduce risk while maximising our ability to keep open certain settings and events where transmission is a higher risk.’
It is also hoped that mandating the use of vaccine passports will encourage more reluctant Scots to get vaccinated so they are able to attend.
Regulations will be introduced by the Scottish Government and reviewed every three weeks, with the rules to be revoked when they are deemed no longer necessary.
People under 18, those who are medically exempt, participating in vaccine trials or who are employees within venues will not have to show certification to gain entry.
Despite the scheme being voted on by MSPs on Thursday, it was not yet finalised, with the detail on a number of issues – including the definition of a nightclub – still to be confirmed.
Speaking during a debate on the measures, Covid Recovery Secretary John Swinney said: ‘The government has set out details to parliament of the nature of the scheme, we’ve put those proposals to parliament this afternoon as part of an approach to protect a very fragile situation that we face in Scotland today of rising infections and hospitalisation that poses a threat to our national health service.
‘We are trying to take proportionate action to protect the public from coronavirus.’
Scotland has recorded 12 coronavirus-linked deaths and 6,836 new cases in the past 24 hours, the latest figures show.
Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie, who became a Scottish Government minister in August, set out his position as he made an intervention in the debate.
Mr Harvie had previously expressed concerns about the use of Covid status certificates.
He said: ‘There is a very big difference between thinking that this policy should be approved when cases were running at a few hundred a day, to thinking it is worth considering when cases are running at around 7,000 a day.
‘And once the entire adult population has had the opportunity for both vaccines.’
Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said her party supported a certification system based on a negative coronavirus test rather than vaccine status.
She said: ‘Almost 60,000 people were consulted by the UK Government, how many have the Scottish Government consulted?
‘Have they even spoken to the businesses that will be responsible for implementing this?
‘There seems to have been little meaningful engagement, according to the night-time industry and the hospitality industry.’
Earlier, businesses had said they were still in the dark about how the Scottish Government’s Covid passports would work.
Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, the executive director of UK Hospitality Scotland, Leon Thompson, said there was a lack of clarity about what the Covid passport plans would entail.
He said: ‘We’re very concerned about the proposals and the vote that’s going ahead today.
‘We weren’t so consulted about this ahead of the First Minister’s statement last week, we had some very rushed and hurried conversations with officials over the last few days.
‘We still have no real information on how the Scottish Government plans to introduce the passport scheme and what will actually be required of venues, nightclubs, major events and so on.
‘The other challenge that we have is defining nightclubs.
‘The First Minister is very keen to see a very tight introduction of the vaccine certifications but already in the discussions we’re beginning to see this spilling over into larger bars, potentially, and other hospitality settings with perhaps live music and potentially dancing.’
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