 The next item of business is consideration of motion 447, in the name of John Swinney, on treating the coronavirus extension and expiry Scotland bill as an emergency bill. Any member who wishes to speak against the motion should press their request to speak button now. I call on George Adam to speak to it and move the motion. I move the motion and speak to the motion as well. Over the past, as you will agree, over the past number of weeks I have tried to be reasonable in my work that I have done with colleagues on the bureau, but sometimes reason can only be one-sided. As I have previously explained to other members of the bureau, the coronavirus extension expiry Scotland bill was introduced on 18 June and, having a stage a day from 22 to 24 June to maximise scrutiny time, has changed from the previous versions of the bill previously where it was done over one day. That would mean that stage 1 would be today, stage 2 tomorrow and stage 3 Thursday. In order to create further flexibility, the bureau agreed to six-thirty decision times on both Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I believe that the passage of the bill is not too difficult for those to understand. If we do not pass the bill before summer recess, there will be a significant less time for citizens and public authorities to respond to the changes before they come into effect at September. Also if we take into account the time needed for royal assent, if the bill is not introduced and passed by the end of June, we will run the very serious risks of the provisions expiring on 30 September and temporary measures that are enabling public authorities to continue to operate in the pandemic falling away. As I have said countless times previously, the bill does not introduce any new provisions. It merely removes temporary measures that are no longer necessary or extends the expiry date to March 2022 to ensure that public bodies can continue to operate while public health measures remain in place. Officials have engaged with stakeholders in the ongoing use of the temporary measures throughout the reporting periods. They have also engaged on an informal basis with stakeholders when considering when temporary measures should be extended or expired. It is obviously clear why we must progress with this bill this week to leave everything else to chance, as others would propose. It would not be a prudent way forward, so I put the motion forward to the chamber. I call on Stephen Kerr. This bill should not be treated as an emergency bill. Emergency implies that we need a sense of urgency and to go against established processes of consultation and parliamentary scrutiny. However, we do not have such a sense of urgency, as the powers granted by the coronavirus Scotland act do not run out until 30 September 2021. Instead of steamrolling through the bill in a few short hours over the next three days, the Government should use the summer recess to consult more widely on the proposed extension to the emergency provisions. The summer recess should also be used to see how Covid develops. Thanks to the UK Government's vaccine procurement and the tireless work of NHS staff and volunteers throughout the UK, more people are developing immunity each day. All the data is telling us that the vaccines are highly effective against all the known variants. In the weeks and months ahead, the rate of immunity will continue to increase as the vaccine is continued to be rolled out at an accelerated rate of progress. That will hopefully see the rate of transmission and the number of people requiring hospitalisation decline. If it does, the situation that we are in as we return from recess will be more optimistic. As those powers will run out until at least March 2022, it would only be appropriate for this Parliament to debate and vote on an extension of those emergency powers after the Government has held a proper consultation, and we have seen the impact of the continued vaccination roll-out over the summer. I had not intended to rise in this debate, but as the minister would not take my intervention, I feel compelled to speak now. This is a piece of legislation that empowers the executive branch of government once again to an unprecedented level, but we are asked, as a legislative, to pass the bill in three days for a landscape of the virus that we will not understand for many weeks to come. We are being asked to empower this Government with a set of powers that will come into force towards the end of this year and then turn into the next year. That is a level of power that, in any other circumstance, no other party in this Parliament would endorse or support. As such, I cannot support the timetabling of the bill as it stands. As I have said to the members previously, we have tried to be reasonable in putting this forward. We still live in extremely difficult times. There is still a pandemic happening in Scotland, as we speak. To not have the powers in place at this stage would put things at risk. The idea of putting your hands in your pockets and looking to see what happens over the next couple of months is not a way forward, as far as I am concerned. In closing, I would say that we need to go through with, as we have said over the next three days. There is opportunity for those to involve in the process and to ensure that we can make sure that we have the bill that we all want to put forward. The question is that motion S5M-447, in the name of John Swinney, on the coronavirus extension and expiry Scotland Bill, be agreed. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we will move to a vote and we will have a short technical suspension.