Quarantine hotels expected to be introduced at Scottish airports
The Deputy First Minister says the Scottish Government will go "at least as far" as the UK Government in any announcement on tightening quarantine rules
Hotels are expected to be used to quarantine international passengers arriving in Scotland.
Deputy Prime Minister John Swinney told a virtual meeting of the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday that restrictions should be done “on a four nations basis” and that the Scottish Government would go “at least as far” as the UK Government on travel restrictions.
Mr Swinney's comments came with an announcement expected from Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the idea, which would see travellers from abroad made to stay in hotels for a period of time before they are allowed into the country.
Mr Swinney told MSPs: “The Scottish Government believes that a comprehensive system of supervised quarantine is required and so I can confirm that the Scottish Government will initially go at least as far as any UK Government announcement in enhancing quarantine arrangements, including through the use of hotels”.
He added: “However, if these UK restrictions are at a minimal level, we will look at other controls we can announce, including additional supervised quarantine measures that can further protect us from importation of the virus, and we'll set those out next week.”
The Deputy First Minister also pressed the UK Government to provide support to the aviation industry, which will be further impacted upon by any restrictions placed on travel into the country, adding that any support from Westminster would be passed onto the sector in Scotland.
Mr Swinney was challenged by Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie to go further, allowing hotel stays for people forced to self-isolate in the community.
Mr Harvie said the initiative had proven successful in other countries, and should be put in place in Scotland.
Mr Swinney said parliament would be updated “at the earliest possible opportunity” on the use of hotels.
Mr Harvie asked if there would be an issue around hotel capacity, something the Deputy First Minister said he did not think would be a problem, given the number of empty hotel rooms due to current lockdown restrictions.
“I don't think there would be any operational challenges in that respect,” he said.
“What we obviously have to make sure is that there's an aligned system to make sure that all cases can be properly dealt with as appropriate.”
He also pointed to support already in place for people to self-isolate, including the self-isolation support grant, the criteria for which he said the Scottish Government planned to extend.
“The government has put in place already measures around self isolation, financial support,” he said.
“We're looking afresh at that to determine whether it is adequate and we will come back to make further announcements about that in due course.