THE UK’s new coronavirus quarantine regime is an unenforceable “mess”, Police Scotland’s independent adviser on Covid law has warned MSPs.

John Scott QC, one of Scotland’s leading human rights layers, also criticised the Scottish Government for producing its own regulations on the quarantine far too late. 

“I think in England it was barely adequate, but here it was inadequate,” he said.

Police Scotland Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said he had “reservations” about the demand quarantine would place on policing.

He also said the last-minute arrival of the Scottish Government’s legislation meant guidance for frontline officers was still being worked on after they had come into effect.

The new quarantine regime started on Monday, with all those arriving in the UK by plane, train or ferry, including UK citizens, ordered to self-isolate for 14 days or face a fine.

The move is being challenged by airline and travel operators as misguided, with reports that even the Home Office concedes it is unenforceable in practice.

Mr Scott, chair of the Independent Advisory Group on the police’s use of temporary Covid powers, told Holyrood’s Justice Sub-Committee, the new rules were useless. 

He said: “The quarantine regulations... speaking personally here, I think are a mess.

“I do not understand them. They appear to be unenforceable.

“It looks as though the UK government is trying to find a way within the next few weeks to either get rid of them or to forget they’re there or pretend that they were never there.

“They don’t make any sense.”
He said that Governments had been “too caught up” in a sense of urgency and there had been a lack of scrutiny of regulations, and criticised the Scottish Government for particularly late to publish its own devolved regulations on enforcing the quarantine.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 were made on June 7, came into effect at 12.01 am on June 8, but were not laid before the Scottish Parliament until 9am on June 08.

By 7pm that night, the Scottish Government had already been forced to issue new regulations to amend them, with the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2020 not laid before parliament until 9am on June 9.

Mr Scott said: “The quarantine regulations in England, which came into force yesterday [Monday], were published last Wednesday.

“I’ve been trying since last Wednesday to find the Scottish regulations, which came into at a midnight past midnight on Sunday night. They were only published on Sunday.

“I haven’t checked them word for word, but they appear to be the same as the English regulations. 

“I don’t know why the Scottish regulations weren’t published sooner, because Police Scotland have got to be able to work out what the implications for them are.

“You can’t introduce new powers without giving the organisation that’s supposed to be enforcing them, even as a backstop, enough time to work out what they should be doing, and then disseminating as much training as they can in a short period of time.

“It’s not fair on the public either. I was reading things on social media at the weekend saying, Oh, we’ve got these quarantine regulations in England, but there won’t be any quarantine in Scotland. And that was because we hadn’t published them here. 

“I think there’s a question for the Scottish Government. Where these is time to give people more of an opportunity to disgest and train and disseminate that should be given.

“Otherwise it can cause unnecessary confusion.

“The quarantine regulations are a good example.

“No one should have to wait till Sunday when they were were going live att a minute past midnight, and when they hadn’t been laid before the parliament because of the urgency.

“I do not accept that that level of urgency applied, and what I see is the potential knock-on implications, not only for Police Scotland and for us in our job, but also for the public when communication is so key to what is happening.

“Actually in Scotland I think we’ve done it better than in England, but this is an an example where we’ve not done it as well.

“I think in England it was barely adequate, but here it was inadequate.”

Later, Mr Livingstone said the police would be a “backstop” in enforcing the quarantine, with officers only responding to reports of people clearly breaking their self-isolation.

He said: “The UK government has taken a view that they wish to introduce this now. 

“Here we are 12 or 13 weeks in potentially we are, right across the UK, moving towards a form of easement and people are arriving into the UK, arguably from countries where the transmission of the virus is less than currently exists in the United Kingdom.

“Nevertheless, that has been the parliamentary decision that has been taken.”

He added: “I have reservations about the demands potentially it would put on policing.

“I also have reservations about that relationship of trust, about, if you like, the police knocking on people’s doors who were in essence were not committing any level of offence, were not committing any level of harm.

“But it’s a balance that was to be struck because of the public health imperative.

“I think it’s been difficult for the legislation to be implemented. 

“I think the speed of it has been a challenge, and the awareness and understanding. 

“We’re still working today.. on providing guidance for our own officers and staff with regard to the regulations, albeit they came into force yesterday. We’re working really really to make sure we provide as much information to our own people as we can.”

At the Scottish Government daily briefing, Nicola Sturgeon was asked about the remarks from Mr Scott and Mr Livingstone and the timing of the devolved legislation.

The First Minister said she would take account of the comments, but said the regulations had been published on Sunday because of “very complex issues to work through”.

She said these included making sure the proposals were compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights, which Holyrood is bound by.

“Clearly we also had to be mindful of the decisions that were beijing taken at UK Government level, because they have been in the driving seat on the development of this policy, and make sure that fitted within our distinctive system of criminal justice.

“And when we were taking decisions around enforcement that was consistent with our public health system, and when we were taking decisions around financial penalties that was consistent with our criminal justice system, and all of that was ECHR compliant.

“These are complex issues that need to be carefully worked through.

“We have very deliberately tried to make sure in how we looked enforcement we are not over-burdening the police. That’s partly for a resource reason, but also because we don’t want what is a public health measure to be too driven by criminal enforcement.

“We want it to be much more led from the health imperative.”

Mr Livingstone also told MSPs that staff absences were at a record low of 3.5 per cent, and that 200 officers had been found with Covid after 1500 who were tested.

He also expressed his “disgust” at people who attacked police officers by spitting or coughing in a bid to pass on Covid, but rejected a Scottish Police Federation call for all such attackers to be put in custody prior to a court appearance.

He said the law enshrined a presumption of liberty and did not permit a blanket custody rule for classes of offenders, and it was custody sergeants who decided on individual cases.

 

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