Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: “I welcome the First Minister’s decision to move away from blanket legal restrictions towards an approach based on public health guidance.
“Two weeks ago, the Scottish Conservatives published our own blueprint for living with Covid, titled Back to Normality. It focused more on personal responsibility and trusting the Scottish public to make their own adjustments to protect themselves and their families.
“When our plan was published, the Health Secretary branded it reckless, yet today large parts of it have been adopted by the Scottish Government.
“They’re moving face masks from law to guidance, finally scrapping vaccine passports and getting rid of mass testing. Reckless two weeks ago, government policy today.
“The demise of the discredited vaccine passport scheme is particularly welcome - and long overdue. There was never any evidence that the policy worked, yet it led to huge expense and inconvenience for businesses.
“In her statement the First Minister said her government is moving to a system of representative sampling, away from mass testing. Yet she has chosen to create a fight with the UK Government over this issue, just weeks before she plans to scale back testing anyway.
“Nicola Sturgeon said that ‘using restrictions to suppress infection is no longer as necessary as it once was. And given the wider harms caused by protective measures, it is no longer as justifiable either.’
“Against that backdrop, there is no justification for her extending the government’s emergency Covid powers for a further six months.
“Throughout this pandemic, Scottish businesses have been an afterthought for this government – and that remains the case. This document is supposed to be a plan for living with Covid, yet it appears from the First Minister’s response to me in the chamber that she didn’t even consult businesses before publishing her plans.”
