Collection

Coronavirus (COVID-19) legislation

Part of:: Coronavirus in Scotland, Law and order

A collection of documents relating to coronavirus legislation.

Introduction

The Scottish Government’s priorities are to continue to lead Scotland safely through and out of the Covid pandemic and to address inequalities made worse by Covid, progressing towards a wellbeing economy, and accelerating inclusive, person-centred public services.

We have introduced the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill to help Scotland recover from the pandemic and ensure greater resilience against future public health threats. Copies of the Bill, the policy memorandum and other accompanying documents are available from the Scottish Parliament's website. Please see the news release for the introduction for the Bill.

As part of learning lessons from the Covid pandemic, the Bill will embed reforms in Scotland’s public services and justice system that, though necessitated by the pandemic, have delivered improvements for service users and improved efficiency. Furthermore, the Bill will continue certain temporary justice system provisions on a longer extension basis as a response to the impact of Covid on Scotland’s justice system. The Bill supports our updated Covid Strategic Framework and our Covid Recovery Strategy.

We have also introduced the Non-Domestic Rates (Coronavirus) (Scotland) Bill to take measures to rule out Covid appeals on non-domestic properties on the basis that market-wide economic changes to rateable values, such as from Covid, should only be considered at revaluation in order to ensure fairness to all ratepayers, and that it is not appropriate to use the material change of circumstances provisions in the non-domestic rates legislation in relation to Covid, or Covid restrictions.

As well as this, the Scottish Parliament has passed the Coronavirus (Discretionary Compensation for Self-isolation) (Scotland) Bill to support health boards’ response to Covid and management of their compensation duties during the pandemic. See the news release about the Bill passing.

Other relevant coronavirus materials

Consultations

Our consultation on a Covid Recovery and Reform Bill ran for 12 weeks between 17 August and 9 November 2021. Consultation responses received (where permission to publish has been given) can be found on our consultation portal. We published a consultation analysis on 26 January 2022. Please also see our news release for the consultation launch.

A disability consultation workshop was co-hosted on 26 October 2021 with Disability Equality Scotland, to hear what people with lived experience of disability think about Covid recovery and changes to the law. An easy read document was co-produced with Disability Equality Scotland to support participation in this workshop.

Our four-week consultation on a Coronavirus (Discretionary Compensation for Self-isolation) (Scotland) Bill, which ended on 24 September 2021, can be found on our consultation portal. We published a consultation analysis and response on 21 October 2021.

The Scottish Coronavirus Acts

The Coronavirus (Extension and Expiry) (Scotland) Act 2021 was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 24 June 2021. The Scottish Parliament has published information, including the policy memorandum and other accompanying documents for the bill. Please also see our news release for the bill passing.

The Extension and Expiry Act builds on the Scottish Coronavirus Acts which are the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020, passed on 1 April 2020, and the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020, passed on 20 May 2020. The Extension and Expiry Act removes (expires) provisions from these Acts that are no longer required and extends those still required until the end of March 2022, with the possibility of further extension to the end of September 2022, subject to the agreement of the Scottish Parliament.

Where the Scottish ministers propose the extension of Scottish Coronavirus Act provisions by secondary legislation, they are required to lay before the Parliament a formal Statement of Reasons:

The Carer's Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Act 2021 was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 7 October 2021 and ensured carers in Scotland who get Carer’s Allowance Supplement received a further Coronavirus Carer’s Allowance Supplement, by way of an increased payment of the Carer’s Allowance Supplement, in December 2021. The Act also contains an enabling provision that allows for a more flexible approach to future payments should this be required. See the news release for the bill passing.

Reports on coronavirus legislation

We publish reports every two months on provisions in the Scottish coronavirus acts and the UK Coronavirus Act 2020, plus secondary legislation (regulations) whose main purpose is coronavirus related. These are below. Statutory reports concerning the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 specifically are published on the freedom of information (FOI): document collection.

A special report was published under the Extension and Expiry Act in September 2021 on our response to the pandemic, including measures on marriage ceremonies and civil partnerships, support for businesses and a range of other policy areas:

Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill: impact assessments (January 2022)

We published five impact assessments in January 2022 to accompany the introduction of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill.

Non-Domestic Rates (Coronavirus) (Scotland) Bill: impact assessments (January 2022)

We published five impact assessments in January 2022 to accompany the Non-Domestic Rates (Coronavirus) (Scotland) Bill.

Coronavirus (Discretionary Compensation for Self-Isolation) Bill: impact assessments (November 2021)

We published five impact assessments in November 2021 to accompany the introduction of the Bill for the Coronavirus (Discretionary Compensation for Self-isolation) (Scotland) Bill.

Bill for the Carer's Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Act 2021: impact assessments (July 2021)

We published four further impact assessments in July 2021 to accompany the introduction of the Bill for the Carer's Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Act 2021:

Bill for the Extension and Expiry Act: impact assessments (June 2021)

We published four impact assessments in June 2021 to accompany the introduction of the Bill for the Extension and Expiry Act:

Bill for the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020: impact assessments (May 2020)

We published four impact assessments in May 2020 to accompany the introduction of the Bill for the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020:

Bill for the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020: impact assessments (March 2020)

We published four impact assessments in March 2020 to accompany the introduction of the Bill for the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020:

Revocation notices

Coronavirus - Powers to issue directions relating to event, gatherings and premises

Revocation under Schedule 22, Part 3, para 13(3) of the Coronavirus Act 2020

The Scottish Ministers give notice that the declaration made by the Scottish Ministers under section 52 of and paragraph 13(1) of Part 3 of schedule 22 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 on 25 March 2020 and the supplementary declaration made by the Scottish Ministers on 30 March 2020 are revoked.

Before revoking these declarations, the Scottish Ministers have consulted with the Chief Medical Officer, as required by paragraph 13(4) of Schedule 22 of the Coronavirus Act 2020.

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