Extract from Scottish Parliament: Questions to the First Minister - Feb 2

Ruth Maguire (Cunninghame South) (SNP): As the vaccination programme progresses and the country begins to move out of lockdown, will consideration be given to prioritising the opening of sports and leisure activities? It was a cause of great consternation to many of my constituents that pubs were open before folk could go to the gym or take part in sport that could be operated safely and positively contribute to physical and mental health.

The First Minister (Nicola Sturgeon): That is a reasonable question. Obviously, all of us want to get everything back to normal as quickly as possible, but we learned last year that we cannot do everything at once, and therefore we have to prioritise. Perhaps we did not always make the right choices when it came to prioritising things last year.

That is not to say that it is not perfectly legitimate for pubs and restaurants and other parts of the economy to want to open, because it absolutely is, and I want to see them back to normal as quickly as possible. However, as we continue down this difficult path and as headroom opens up, we have to be very clear what our priorities are.