Covid discussions of New Year and travel to England: FOI release

Information requested

1. Details of all correspondence, including emails and notes of meetings, between the Scottish Government/Government Ministers and relevant bodies/organisations that led to the decision taken by the Scottish Government/First Minister on December 28, 2021, to ask people living in Scotland not to cross the border into England at New Year to slow the spread of the Omicron Covid variant.
2. Details of the decision to cancel Scotland’s New Year celebrations that year.

Response

Question 1

This is a formal notice under Section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because there was no decision by the Scottish Government nor First Minister asking members of the public not to travel to England through the late 2021 Hogmanay Period.

However, we have included further information below which you may find helpful.

On 29 December 2021, the First Minister provided an update to the Scottish Parliament where she advised everyone to ‘stay at home more than normal, to reduce contacts with people outside our own household, and to limit the size of any indoor social gathering that does take place so that they don’t include people from any more than 3 households’.

Finally, the Coronavirus (COVID-19): staying safe and protecting others guidance set out rules and guidance on how to stay safe and help prevent the spread of COVID-19 including advice for those looking to travel. The last update prior to 31 December 2021 was published on the 27 December 2021 and can be found here.

Question 2

This is a formal notice under Section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

However, we have included information below that you may find helpful. On 21 December 2021 the First Minister announced from 26 December the intention to place limits on the size of live public events that could take place for a period of three weeks.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19): staying safe and protecting others guidance set out rules and guidance on how to stay safe and help prevent the spread of COVID-19 including capacity limits for larger events. Updated guidance was published on 22 December 2022 and can be found here.

The decision to cancel New Year celebration events would have been at the discretion of individual event organisers and therefore out-with the remit of the Scottish Government.

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