{"id":240981,"date":"2021-08-18T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T08:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=240981"},"modified":"2021-08-20T06:26:39","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T06:26:39","slug":"scottish-government-considers-making-coronavirus-powers-permanent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=240981","title":{"rendered":"Scottish government considers making coronavirus powers permanent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joanna Taylor \u2013 The Independent Aug 18, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Scottish<\/a> government is considering making its temporary coronavirus<\/a> powers permanent, which would allow it to impose lockdowns, close schools<\/a> and release prisoners<\/a> early.<\/p>\n

A change in the law<\/a> would allow Holyrood<\/a> to respond to any future public health<\/a> threats more \u201ceffectively and rapidly\u201d, according to consultation<\/a> published by the government.<\/p>\n

The powers \u2014 which also include the ability to move court sessions online and allow a wider range of healthcare workers to administer vaccines<\/a> \u2014 would be deployed when \u201cnecessary and proportionate\u201d, ministers say, but the Conservatives<\/a> have accused them of being \u201cunwilling to give up their control over people\u2019s lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

Currently, the additional powers are set to end in March 2022, but can be extended by six months with Holyrood backing. The government is seeking the public\u2019s views on the possible permanent expansion, which they say could help to \u201cprotect the people of Scotland\u201d from \u201cany incidence or spread of infection\u201d that could harm them even beyond Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Some caveats would apply: schools would only shut with the sign off of the chief medical officer, for instance, while ministers would report to parliament every two months on the use of the powers.<\/p>\n

Allowing the early release of prisoners would also likely carry caveats: currently, inmates can be released up to 90 days early to alleviate pressure on prison as long as they haven\u2019t committed harassment or domestic violence offences. Prison governors can also veto specific prisoners they believe could pose a risk to someone.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s consultation also recommends a permanent online shift to some processes which were digitised during the pandemic, such as council meetings, court documents and registering still births and deaths.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the consultation, deputy first minister John Swinney said that Scotland has a \u201cunique opportunity\u201d to \u201creimagine health and social care\u201d.<\/p>\n

Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Critics have accused Nicola Sturgeon\u2019s government of being \u201cunwilling to give up their control over people\u2019s lives\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240981"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241026,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240981\/revisions\/241026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}