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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 19 December 2024
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Displaying 2232 contributions

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COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Vaccination Certification

Meeting date: 16 September 2021

John Mason

Mr Stevenson, you were laying it on pretty thick that this is going to be impossible to do, but the reality is that loads of other countries have vaccination passports. I think that Greece started its system in July, and France, Switzerland and many others have such a system. They seem to have managed it, so what is the big problem here?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Vaccination Certification

Meeting date: 16 September 2021

John Mason

My next question is for Dr McMillan from the Law Society. I was interested in what your submission says about the concept of discrimination. You suggested that there had been a case—I will not even try to pronounce it, but it was in the Czech Republic—in which the courts said that it was not discrimination and that it is legal to have passports, certificates or something along those lines. That case particularly affected children.

On the other hand, you raise the point that introduction of a certificate could be discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 because certain groups have not been vaccinated. Will you tell us where you are with that? Is the law changing? Are we uncertain?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Ministerial Statement, Coronavirus Act Reports and Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 16 September 2021

John Mason

My understanding is that quite a few countries have used vaccination certificates already, so I presume that we can learn from them. For example, I understand that Greece announced its scheme on 28 May and that there was a big uptake of vaccinations in June before the certificates came into operation in July. I do not know whether you saw the previous evidence session; in it, Mr Doncaster argued that we should be more like France, where vaccination certificates are required for entry everywhere, so that the scheme would be simple and understood by everyone. What have we learned from other countries’ experiences?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Ministerial Statement, Coronavirus Act Reports and Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 16 September 2021

John Mason

As an extension to that point, if hospital numbers were to fall dramatically over the next fortnight, would we just forget about certificates?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Ministerial Statement, Coronavirus Act Reports and Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 16 September 2021

John Mason

Previous witnesses talked about the expense of apps and checking people as they go into venues. My experience—I think that people know this—as a Clyde Football Club supporter, is that my season ticket is on an app that is checked when I walk in. There is no problem—the staff use their own phones for doing that, and there does not seem to be an issue. What is your response to the point about the cost to businesses?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Ministerial Statement, Coronavirus Act Reports and Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 16 September 2021

John Mason

On exemptions, a constituent of mine has a range of health problems but, as I understand it, her general practitioner and clinicians have not yet decided whether it is wise for her to get the vaccine. That is a purely medical decision, but where does that leave her? Do we press the clinicians to make the decision, or will she just be restricted in where she can go?

COVID-19 Recovery Committee

Vaccination Certification

Meeting date: 16 September 2021

John Mason

I still wonder whether you are slightly overstating the case. Lots of the restaurants that I go to throw out all the younger kids at a certain time—9 or 10 o’clock—so such things can be done.

One of Mr Doncaster’s arguments was that people at football matches are mainly outdoors, so certification should not be needed. Do you accept that we are now going to have such a system? I presume that most people have to use public transport to get to football stadiums, and there is a fair bit of space inside stadiums where people eat, go to the toilet and so on.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2022-23: Public Finances and the Impact of Covid-19

Meeting date: 14 September 2021

John Mason

Might that suggest that we should try to get a different relationship, so that we do not compete so much with those areas?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2022-23: Public Finances and the Impact of Covid-19

Meeting date: 14 September 2021

John Mason

I will press you on that and will use a different example. Income tax in this country is horribly complicated and the intention has been to make it fairer, so we have many little exceptions, reliefs and all the rest of it. Was it intended that the fiscal framework would make arrangements fair, which is why we are linked to this and to that? We have ended up with something that we struggle to understand and which the public probably do not have much chance with.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2022-23: Public Finances and the Impact of Covid-19

Meeting date: 14 September 2021

John Mason

I am up for that. Does Mr Eiser want to respond? I am sorry not to have given you a chance yet.