Scotland to lift Covid ban on large gatherings

Restrictions on large outdoor events in Scotland will be lifted from next Monday, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed, as she told Holyrood that the latest Covid infection data indicated “we may be starting to turn a corner”.

But Sturgeon also warned MSPs that while the country was on a path to Covid becoming endemic, “that is not a shift that any government can just declare or wish into being”.

She said the latest revelations about Downing Street’s “serial” rule-breaking were “deeply angering and upsetting” to people who had made significant personal sacrifices to follow government guidance.

Before the statement Holyrood’s presiding officer, Alison Johnstone, issued a strong rebuke to the first minister after a draft of her weekly Covid update was reported by some media outlets, describing the leak as “extremely disappointing and disrespectful to this parliament and its elected members”.

Sturgeon assured Johnstone there would be an inquiry into the origin of the leak.

Scotland is set to lift a ban on large gatherings, meaning that protests and public events will once again be allowed. The decision was made following talks between the Scottish government and the British Civil Liberties Union (BCLU). The move is seen as a victory for advocates of free speech, who had called for the ban to be lifted in order to allow protests against the extension of the UK's Investigatory Powers Act. The Act allows the government to collect metadata and communications data without prior judicial approval.