Proposal to use terrorism laws during pandemic revealed by Scottish government in bungled disclosure
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James Wolffe
The Lord Advocate suggested using terrorism legislation to deal with the pandemic, the Scottish government has inadvertently revealed due to improperly redacting his comments in material released following a freedom of information request.
James Wolffe QC told ministers that the Civil Contingencies Act could be used to close venues after police warned they lacked the power to do this, The Herald reports.
Mr Wolffe said the Scottish government would have to seek permission to use the law from the UK government.
While First Minister Nicola Sturgeon did not discount the idea when it was suggested in March last year, the UK government expressed hesitancy.
The material details meetings of the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) between February and March last year.
The records indicate that while Edinburgh wanted to work with London, ministers were keen to show their advice was correctly “branded” to make clear the role of the Scottish government.
Minutes of the SGORR meeting of March 2, chaired by Ms Sturgeon, state: “On marketing, the UKG will be issuing new material this week. Ministers would like to ensure we can issue our own SG branded versions as it was important the Scottish public understood the advice was from SG as well as UKG.”
The minutes, which were improperly redacted, state: “The Lord Advocate reiterated the CC’S point regarding legal power. However said this could be done under the Civil Contingencies Act and that Scotland could ask the UK to do this. However FM noted UKG were hesitant to utilise this method.”
The Scottish government declined to comment.
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