Coronavirus Acts: fifth report to Scottish Parliament (February 2021)

1. Introduction

1.1. As required by section 15 of the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 (the ‘first Scottish Act’), and section 12 of the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No. 2) Act 2020 (the ‘second Scottish Act’), Scottish Ministers have conducted a review of the provisions in Part 1 of those Acts and have prepared this report. A review has also been conducted of the provisions of the Coronavirus Act 2020 (the ‘UK Act’) for which the Scottish Parliament gave legislative consent and these provisions are also covered within this report.

1.2. The first report to the Scottish Parliament on the Coronavirus Acts^[3] was published on 9 June 2020; the second report^[4] was published on 11 August 2020; the third^[5] on 6 October 2020; and the fourth^[6] on 9 December 2020. This fifth report covers the period 1 December 2020 to 31 January 2021.

1.3. As per the requirements of section 15 of the first Scottish Act, and section 12 of the second Scottish Act, this report includes information on the operation of the provisions of Part 1 of each of those Acts. It also includes an update on the status of those provisions, and confirmation that Scottish Ministers are satisfied that the status of those provisions is appropriate.

1.4. This report covers the reporting requirements to reflect the duty in reporting that requires Scottish Ministers to take account of information about “the nature and the number of incidents of domestic abuse occurring during the reporting period to which the review relates” and explain in the report on that review how the information was taken account of. The report also covers the reporting requirements relating to Scottish Statutory Instruments (SSIs) made by Scottish Ministers where the main purpose relates to coronavirus, excluding those made by Scottish Ministers under the first or second Scottish Act or UK Act. Further information on those additional reporting requirements is included at section five.