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I have no further comments to make.

Do you mean in relation to aviation and climate change?

I will answer that in two parts. First, no system will be able to prevent all variants, or variants of concern, from entering the country. What we can do is minimise the risk of that happening. The purpose behind a managed quarantine system is that, when an individual tests positive, the case is prioritised for genomic sequencing, which allows us to identify quickly whether they have a variant of concern. The process acts to minimise the risk.

You are right to say that no system, other than stopping international travel altogether, can avoid all the risk. However, it is about taking a proportionate approach to try to minimise the risk. We believe that the system that we have in place is a proportionate response to try to minimise the potential risk and to identify variants of concern as quickly as possible when they enter the country.

The RAG ratings system—the process that is gone through by the joint biosecurity centre—involves looking at data in different countries to identify where variants of concern may be circulating. Where they are circulating and there is community transmission, the likelihood is that the country will find itself higher up the RAG ratings and in the red category because it presents a potential risk to us. The response is a proportionate one that helps to minimise the risk, but I accept that unless we stop all forms of international travel, we are not going to be able to stop variants completely.

Your second point is absolutely right. While the virus continues to circulate not just here in Scotland and the UK but in other parts of the world, the risk of new variants developing remains high, and it remains even greater in countries where vaccination levels or access to vaccination have remained low. From my and the Scottish Government’s perspective, the outcome that we want is to make sure that countries around the world have fair access to vaccines in order to reduce the risk to individuals in those countries and to reduce the potential risk of new variants of concern emerging.

There is no point in looking at the situation with the perspective of “As long as we’re all right here, Jack, everything’s fine.” The way to deal with it is on a global basis. It is essential that all countries play their part in trying to make sure that countries across the world have access to vaccines and a vaccination programme, in order to make sure that we minimise not only the risk to those countries but the possibility of the emergence of new variants of concern.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to appear before the COVID-19 Recovery Committee for the first time to discuss the international travel regulations. Since I was at the Health and Sport Committee in March, a lot has changed in both the overall state of the pandemic and the regulations on international travel. As well as giving evidence on the regulations that the committee is considering, I thought that it might be helpful to briefly say something about the context in which they are made.

The restrictions on international travel combine a mixture of devolved and reserved responsibilities and this is an area where effective four-nations working is essential. The regulations are made under the health protection powers in the Public Health etc (Scotland) Act 2008 and are therefore devolved, but some elements are reserved, including aspects of immigration, and aviation policy. Border Force, which is the main enforcement agency for the regulations, is part of the Home Office.

There is regular engagement and dialogue on policy at official level, and independent analysis and advice on the risk of travel from individual countries is provided by the joint biosecurity centre. The methodology that is used for the process is endorsed by the four United Kingdom chief medical officers. That leads through to a regular four-nations ministerial forum, which is the Covid operations committee, where decisions on alignment or divergence can be agreed and managed.

The system is designed to limit the importation of variants of concern and cases from high-risk countries while allowing us to reduce restrictions on travellers where it is safe to do so. The Scottish Government’s first priority remains to limit the risk of the importation of high-risk variants of concern through international travel, especially variants with the potential to undermine the success of our vaccination programme. At the same time, we want to support a safe restart of international travel. That is in recognition of the fact that the restrictions, although we consider them necessary and proportionate to the risk, have a significant impact on people’s ability to see their family and loved ones overseas or to travel for work, study or holidays.

Members will be aware of the UK Government’s global travel task force report, which was published in April. The final review milestone in that report is 1 October, and we are in discussions with the UK Government and the other devolved Administrations about future policy developments in the area.

The nature of the global pandemic means that international travel is not without risk, even for people who are fully vaccinated or who are going to a green-list country. Everyone should continue to think very carefully about whether they need to travel and should make sure that they know the rules that apply in the country that they are visiting and on their return to Scotland.

I hope that that overview is helpful. I am happy to respond to any questions that members might have.