Faith & Belief representatives

Wider Stakeholder Group

Dear all,

As you may have seen, a short time ago the First Minister announced some changes to the existing regulations around Covid. The main aspects of her announcement with regards to Covid certification, face coverings, and Regulations applying to Places of Worship are that:

• The COVID certification scheme requiring certain venues and events to check the vaccine or test status of attendees will come to an end next Monday 28 February. The app which supports the scheme will remain operational, however, so any business that wishes to continue COVID certification on a voluntary basis to reassure customers will be able to do so. As you will be aware, acts of worship are currently exempt from the certification requirements.
• As of 21 March - assuming no significant adverse developments in the course of the virus - we expect that the legal requirement to wear face coverings in certain indoor settings and on public transport will be converted to guidance. We will continue to strongly recommend the wearing of face coverings in shops and other indoor public places, and on public transport
• We also expect on 21 March to lift the legal requirement for businesses, places of worship and service providers to have regard to guidance on COVID, and to take practical measures set out in the guidance

Over the coming days, and prior to 21 March, we will be assessing any changes required to our current guidance, taking into account the anticipated changes above, and taking cognisance of any changes to the threat level and data, which may or may not alter the intended changes in the intervening period.

We will discuss the changes, and anticipated alteration to our current guidance, at this week’s meeting of the Faith and Belief representatives on Wednesday.

In addition to the announced changes to measures today, the updated Strategic Assessment has been published, and the link is below:

Coronavirus (COVID-19): Scotland's Strategic Framework Update - February 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

As ever, if you have anything to raise about the changes or other matters, please let us know.

Many thanks,

Dean

Dean Pennington | Senior Policy officer | Faith & Belief Team | Connected Communities | Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights Directorate | Scottish Government |