Liam McArthur, Liberal Democrat candidate for the Orkney Constituency has called on the Scottish Government to provide urgent clarity around future coronavirus restrictions in the islands.

Liam McArthur said:

“Three weeks on from the First Minister’s announcement about changes to restrictions in mainland Scotland, islanders are still in the dark about what the government intends to do. As a result, there is no opportunity to plan ahead and lives are having to be put on hold.

“Undertaking a consultation is all very well but not as an after-thought, without any explanation as to how it will inform Ministers’ decisions. It is also hard to see how this squares with the First Minister’s commitment to be ‘driven by the data’.

“Everyone recognises these are difficult decisions with uncomfortable balances to strike. However, they are not made any easier for people to deal with when they are only revealed at the last minute.

“It is time for SNP Ministers to come clean with islanders on what they intend to do.

“We are seeing community testing being used extensively across the UK, providing added reassurance to the public and a chance to identify cases before they have a chance to spread.

“For whatever reason, the use of such testing in Scotland has been much lower than elsewhere in the UK. I still believe, though, that pre-departure testing at airports and ferry ports can play an important role as we emerge from the current lockdown.

“SNP Ministers have been sympathetic to this argument but islanders need to know when the government expects to introduce such testing and how the scheme will work in practice.”

There are 4 candidates standing in the Orkney Constituency in the Scottish Parliament Elections to be held on Thursday May 6th .

• Samuel Bown – Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party.
• Coilla Drake – Scottish Labour Party.
• Robert Fraser Leslie – Scottish National Party (SNP).
• Liam Scott McArthur – Scottish Liberal Democrats.