Scotland should have clear “triggers” for reimposing restrictions if they are needed, with agreed support for people and businesses and improved contact tracing, Anas Sarwar has said.
The Scottish Labour Party leader set out his party’s plan for “living with Covid”, as restrictions introduced to tackle Omicron are eased.
He criticised the Scottish Government for its “ad-hoc decision making” while predicting there would not be any more complete national lockdowns.
But Sarwar argued that, if more variants emerge, there should be an agreed system across the UK where certain hospitalisation levels, infection rates, number of deaths or health worker absences are used so imposing restriction “doesn’t become a political football”.
He bemoaned the communication between the government and businesses as “woeful and often non-existent” during the pandemic, while Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie said the NHS, social care sector and contact tracing system needed “surge capacity” if new variants cause further spikes in infections.
Speaking at a meeting with hospitality representatives, Sarwar said: “The reality is we’re almost two years into the pandemic and over that time we haven’t built the resilience in the system that we should have built – in terms of business support, resilience in terms of what’s happening in our schools, resilience in terms of what’s happening in our NHS.
“There comes a point where an ad hoc decision-making process isn’t fit for purpose anymore.”
He suggested that ongoing restrictions and the way they are introduced at short notice was having a “detrimental impact” on people’s health, mental wellbeing and businesses.
“It’s time that the Scottish Government and the UK Government in partnership sets out a clear framework and clear trigger points about what levels do they have to consider restrictions, if they consider restrictions at all.
“And, if they do bring in any level of restrictions, what people can expect them to be and then what it means for businesses at every level of that, what level of business support is going to come in to protect their business, and what level what level of economic support is going to go into support independent individual workers.
“Because at the moment, the ad hoc decision-making isn’t working for anyone.”
Stephen Montgomery, spokesperson for the Scottish Hospitality Group (SHG), said the decision by Public Health Scotland ordering the cancellation of Christmas parties and guidance for people to avoid crowded spaces, had “crippled the sector”.
Describing the decision as “probably the hardest of the restrictions we faced”, Montgomery said the restrictions were estimated to have cost the Scottish hospitality sector more than £1bn and he now expects it to be between three and five years before the industry fully recovers.
Mario Gizzi, owner of the DiMaggio’s restaurant group and an SHG member, argued there was “total confusion” across the country about what rules are currently in place.
“We can’t, every time something happens, press a panic button and go into shutdown mode - we have to learn to live with it, deal with it and if there’s compensation required, then someone has to help.”
A Scottish Government spokesman responded: “We will shortly publish an updated strategic framework, which will set out how we can adapt to living with Covid in a way which enables us all to live as freely as possible, while controlling the harm it can cause.
“As we have seen with Omicron, the situation with the pandemic remains extremely fluid and, in these exceptional circumstances, the government has continued to act urgently to protect public health.
“We will continue to report to parliament every two months on the use of powers in coronavirus legislation, and remain committed to expiring or suspending any provisions that are no longer necessary.”
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