Coronavirus Acts: second report to Scottish Parliament (August 2020)

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 (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 Scottish Parliament on the Coronavirus Acts^[4] which covered the reporting period ending 31 May 2020, was published on 9 June 2020. For the provisions under the UK Act and first Scottish Act, this second two-monthly report covers the reporting period 1 June to 31 July 2020. The second Scottish Act received Royal Assent on 26 May 2020 and was not covered in the first report. The information on the provisions of Part 1 of that Act in this report therefore covers the period from those provisions coming into force on 27 May 2020, to the end of the reporting period on 31 July 2020.

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. In addition to the information on operation and status which is provided for all of the above noted provisions, we have also reported in more detail on those provisions which we consider to be, at this time, of most significant impact or interest. For these provisions in particular, we have gone beyond the reporting requirements under the legislation, for example, by providing detail on the factors which have been considered in determining the continued necessity.

1.4. This report covers the additional reporting requirements to reflect the new 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 additional 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.