Legislation will be introduced at Holyrood on Friday to extend some emergency coronavirus powers for at least another six months, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The Coronavirus (Extensions and Expiry) (Scotland) Bill was announced by Covid Recovery Secretary John Swinney earlier this month, and the First Minister told the coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh continuing measures will include eviction protections and how Scotland’s courts work.
But the legislation, the First Minister said, would remove some curbs on marriages and civil partnerships, due to the return to closer to normal working in registry offices.
“The legislation therefore recognises that although we are in that journey back to normality and therefore some measures are no longer needed, we are not quite there yet, so we need to keep some of these in place for a bit longer,” she said.
All adults in Scotland are on track to receive their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine by July 18, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The Scottish Government previously said it expects to have offered the first dose to all adults by the end of July, however it is expected this will be complete by the end of next week.
“Vaccines are the way back to normality – I think we are increasingly confident of that,” she said.
“Quite literally every single one of us who gets these jabs is representing a step back towards normal life.”
