JUSTICE Secretary Humza Yousaf has written to a Holyrood committee to clarify his remarks over follow-up checks on overseas travellers quarantining in Scotland amid allegations he "misled" MSPs.
On Sunday, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman confirmed that not a single follow-up check had been carried out by officials in Scotland since 14-day quarantine rules were put in place a month ago – with the issue blamed on security and data problems with the Home Office systems.
Police Scotland are now investigating six incidents of of suspected non-compliance with the rules.
The issue has now been resolved but Mr Yousaf has been under fire after it was revealed that he told Holyrood’s health committee last month that public health officials “are contacting approximately 20 per cent of travellers to give them public health guidance in relation to quarantining and self-isolation”.
READ MORE: No air arrival in Scotland has had quarantine check due to 'security clearance' issues
Lib Dem MSP Alex-Cole Hamilton, the party’s health spokesperson, had called for an explanation to be given to Holyrood over the remarks, that he claimed appear “to be completely at odds with the truth”.
Mr Yousaf has now written to the convener of the health committee, Lewis Macdonald, to clarify his remarks.
In the letter, he said: “At the time I made that statement, based on the information provided to me by my officials, I believed it to be correct.
“I was advised that receipt of data and the ability to contact those in quarantine had begun on June 22. However, I now understand that in fact on receipt of the data it was determined to not be of sufficient quality to allow the relevant checks to take place immediately and so further work was required to improve the quality of the data.”
Mr Yousaf also confirmed that a memorandum of understanding between Public Health Scotland and the Home Office “that governed sharing of sensitive information” has been amended, adding that checks have begun, including “retrospective sampling of those who have already arrived”.
He added: “I remain confident that there is a robust system in place to check on incoming passengers.
“Border Force have reported high levels of compliance with the regulations at ports of entry. As I said to the committee, Police Scotland’s approach to enforcement of these regulations would be to act based on intelligence they may receive that somebody is not self-isolating.
READ MORE: Airport bosses hit out at Scottish Government over lack of air bridges
“In advance of the committee meeting, Police Scotland confirmed that no calls reporting noncompliance with the self-isolation requirements had been received. It may be of interest to the committee to know that as of today, six reports of suspected non-compliance have been received by Police Scotland.”
In response, Mr Macdonald has now demanded that Mr Yousaf supplies the committee with more information over his "misleading figure".
He said: "We appreciate the correspondence from Humza Yousaf regarding his incorrect comments at our committee meeting on June 23.
“However, we have written to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice to seek further clarification on why this misleading figure of 20 per cent was given to the committee at a time when there had been no quarantine checks on travellers coming to Scotland.
"We are also seeking a response from Mr Yousaf on a number of other matters raised during this evidence session.”
Nicola Sturgeon stressed that because the checks are yet to take place, it doesn’t mean people have not been keeping to the rules.
She said: “Checks have started this morning and they will continue. I think it’s an important part of the assurance process.
“The fact that the sample checks only started today does not mean that we think there hasn’t been compliance with this system – but we will now do those sample checks.”
But Conservatives have demanded an explanation over the situation.
READ MORE: Matt Hancock claims Scots have been moving around more freely than English during lockdown
Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said: “It’s increasingly clear that Humza Yousaf misled the Scottish Parliament, and he now has to front up and explain why.
“He can either do that at the First Minister’s daily briefing or to Holyrood itself – but either way he needs to account for these claims.
“Mr Yousaf very clearly not only reeled off specific statistics in relation to quarantine checks but said police had told him the compliance rate was very good. But now we know the compliance rate couldn’t possibly have been good, as no checks were taking place on this.
“And even if they had been, Police Scotland didn’t hold any information on the matter. This is another embarrassing gaffe by Nicola Sturgeon’s increasingly exposed and ill-equipped supporting cast – Humza Yousaf has clearly taken some liberties with the police and now needs to come clean as to why.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel