Covid in Edinburgh: Why did Nicola Sturgeon ignore public health officials' advice about move to tier two? – Daniel Johnson MSP

As I write, Edinburgh remains under level-three Covid-19 restrictions and we await the decision tomorrow whether this will change.

Nicola Sturgeon still needs to explain her decision over Edinburgh's Covid tier, says Daniel Johnson (Picture: Fraser Bremner/pool/Getty Images)

Last Tuesday’s announcement by the First Minister was a hammer blow for jobs and businesses. As a former shop keeper, I know how important the Christmas period is for trade.

The Scottish government have consistently said they will act on the public health advice when categorising levels, but the decision last week appeared to contradict that pledge.

Of the four measures used to determine these levels, Edinburgh met the requirements for tier two in each one but SNP ministers left us in tier three.

Edinburgh should have been lowered to tier two, but SNP ministers seem to have set aside advice from public health officials and decided to maintain the current restrictions with no clear justification. This advice was also provided to the City Council.

What insight and information did they have that they didn’t share?

Governments must act on the information it has but, when exercising that judgement, it must explain it.

In many ways, the explanation of a decision is more important than the decision itself. Last week all that was published was three bullet points, one of which simply stated that we would stay at level three. We are owed an explanation when the decision contradicts the data.

We all support the framework to restrict the spread of the virus, but its restrictions must be applied transparently. Livelihoods are at stake and given the extraordinary effort from the whole of Edinburgh to observe the rules, we are being let down.

Daniel Johnson is Scottish Labour MSP for Edinburgh Southern

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