Fail to prepare and prepare to fail

The Scottish Government must not rely on convincing Boris Johnson to follow its lead on quarantine

As the UK population becomes increasingly inoculated against coronavirus, the need to protect ourselves from new strains entering the country becomes ever more pressing.

With this in mind, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced measures at the end of last month that many had been calling for since the start of the pandemic.

From next Monday, visitors entering the UK from 33 "red list" countries will be required to quarantine and thousands of hotel rooms have been secured for this purpose.

Scottish Government ministers were among critics who said the plans did not go far enough. All visitors to Scotland from overseas – not just from those countries where mutant strains have been detected – will be required to quarantine.

But Health Secretary Jeane Freeman was unable to say yesterday whether extra hotel rooms had been booked for the policy in Scotland. She would only reiterate the view that all overseas visitors should quarantine and that the Scottish Government is trying to persuade the UK Government to adopt the same stricter stance.

It would be a mistake to count on Mr Johnson taking Ms Freeman’s advice. The Scottish Government has laid itself open to the charge of failing to prepare adequately for the rollout of the vaccination programme, with GPS reporting supply shortages and volunteers complaining of a recruitment process mired in bureaucracy.

We must not risk being under-prepared for this next stage in the fight against Covid. Ministers at Holyrood must assume Scotland will plough its own furrow on quarantine and act accordingly.

Ms Freeman said: "We will want to quarantine everyone who is coming in internationally. If they are coming to Scotland from whatever country they are coming in from, we will want them to go into quarantine.”

Ms Freeman is in government rather than in opposition and therefore has the power to act on this desire. It seems the challenge for her and her colleagues could be matching words with action.

There is still a week to go before the quarantine measures come into force. The Scottish Government must use that time to ensure the country is properly equipped.