Nicola Sturgeon has been warned a travel ban risks undermining “public support” for other health measures designed to stop the spread of covid.
Lib Dem MSP Mike Rumbles also described the prospect of stopping people from moving from one council area to another as “unenforceable”.
Under the current system, people living in level 3 areas are urged to "avoid any unnecessary travel out of the area".
People in areas 0, 1 or 2 have been told not to travel unnecessarily to level 3 or 4 areas.
However, the advice is guidance, rather than law.
Sturgeon confirmed earlier this week the Government is considering putting the travel restrictions into law.
She said: “We haven’t taken a final decision yet but we will say more about that at the next review point."
At Holyrood today, Rumbles asked Sturgeon if she understood that “threatening to impose” an “unenforceable legal ban” risks undermining “policing by consent” and public support.
She replied: “England is in lockdown today. I can’t guarantee that we will not, in terms of all or part of Scotland, follow suit at some point, but right now we are not there. We are in a better position, a better position partly because we acted earlier with some restrictions and largely because people have complied with those restrictions.”
“But we have to be under no illusions about what it is we are required to do if we are to stay in that better position and hopefully avoid the country going into a similar lockdown to England.”
She added: “We absolutely must stop the virus spreading from high prevalence areas of the country to low prevalence areas of the country. You cannot have a targeted, proportionate, regional approach to covid restrictions, unless you have travel restrictions as part of it.”
Asked how a travel ban could be enforced by the police, Scottish Police Federation chair David Hamilton said yesterday: “We have absolutely no idea.”
