JRG’s fears over dearth of detail on passports

SCOTTISH football chiefs last night expressed concern over the lack of detail available on the Scottish Government’s planned vaccine passports scheme — just over two weeks before it is due to be implemented. Under new Covid-19 rules, from October all attendees at a venue where the crowd exceeds 10,000 must prove they have been double vaccinated. However, SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster had previously raised ‘huge concerns’ over the plans, which he fears will cause chaos at the turnstiles. The league chief had instead proposed random spot checks as the only realistic solution. And yesterday, after attending two Scottish Government-led meetings to learn updates on the vaccine certification roll-out, the JRG repeated Doncaster’s message as it called for more information as a matter of

urgency. A statement read: ‘The JRG reiterated its view that a system of spot checks is the only pragmatic and workable solution to the numerous practical challenges surrounding implementation of the Scottish Government’s plans within Scottish football. ‘The JRG sought clarity on the operational detail which clubs, football bodies and stadium operators will be expected to implement from October 1. At both meetings, the Scottish Government representatives acknowledged they were not yet in a position to provide the detail necessary for clubs to begin their implementation planning. ‘With just over two weeks until the system is scheduled to commence in football stadia across the country, we reiterated our concern at the lack of detail available and reinforced the requirement that this information be confirmed as soon as possible.’ Earlier yesterday, Professor Jason Leitch had further opened the door for random spot checks on fans outside football grounds after admitting Doncaster had been correct to flag up issues with vaccine passports. Asked if he thought Doncaster’s solution could work, the national clinical director told Radio Clyde: ‘I do and there are scientific ways of working out what that might look like. ‘You probably wouldn’t check two of 60,000, but you might check a percentage of 60,000. You don’t need to check all 60,000. At massive events like rugby at Murrayfield or football at one of our big stadia, it may be we can use probability and science to get us to a point where we need to know “X-number” or “X-percentage” of the big number. That will give us an idea of how many are actually being vaccinated.’