NICOLA Sturgeon called out Anas Sarwar's "deeply disingenuous" position on coronavirus vaccine certification as she set out the Scottish Government's plans for the scheme.
The First Minister had been outlining further details for the use of so-called vaccine passports at Holyrood, which will come into force across Scotland next month.
Sarwar said there were still "big gaps" in the detail and there was "limited engagement" with businesses affected and "limited evidence published" on the difference the scheme will make.
The Scottish Government's plans for vaccine passports are due to come into effect on October 1 and say they will be needed for entry to nightclubs, indoor seated events of more than 500 people any outdoor unseated event above 4000, and any event above 10,000.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon outlines details of Scottish 'vaccine passport' scheme
For smaller events, the government expects venues to check the certification of all in attendance. For larger events, they will ask venues to carry out a number of checks which is "both reasonable and effective", with experts to provide further guidance on this in future.
The scheme will not apply to people under the age of 18, those who took part in vaccine trials, people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons or to performers or staff at a venue.
Sturgeon said the overall operation of the Covid passport scheme will be kept "under review", with changes implemented with experience.
In his response to Sturgeon's update on vaccine certification, Sarwar said: "The First Minister wants to pretend that this scheme is the same one used by the Welsh Government. That is at best disingenuous. The Welsh scheme is either a vaccine or a negative test and I repeat again to the First Minister, making sure someone is negative going into a venue is more important than whether they've had a vaccine. You can still get the virus and you can still spread the virus even if you have been vaccinated."
Sarwar also quoted Welsh FM Mark Drakeford who said the use of vaccine passports alone raises a series of "ethical, legal and technical questions", adding that Sturgeon had "still not answered" these questions.
Sarwar said that the "route out of this pandemic" is partly vaccination, but is "fundamentally testing and tracing", adding that the Scottish Government had "woefully failed" at both things.
READ MORE: What we learned from Nicola Sturgeon's Covid update today
Sturgeon responded: "On vaccine certification, Anas Sarwar is being deeply disingenuous, opportunistic and changes his own goalposts at every turn. A few weeks ago, Anas Sarwar was not asking us to introduce a scheme that either had proof of vaccine or a negative [lateral flow] test. What Anas Sarwar was asking for was only negative tests and not to have proof of vaccine.
"The reason we don't, at this stage, intend to include a negative test is for all of the reasons that have been set out - that while [lateral flow] tests are very important, they rely on self-reporting and at this stage, [we would not] consider that to be the best approach, but it would also undermine one of the central objectives of the vaccine certification scheme, which is to drive up the uptake rates of vaccine certification. That is the only difference to the scheme that is being proposed in Wales. It applies to exactly the same venues and will apply in exactly the same way.
"Anas Sarwar doesn't want people going to events or nightclubs to have the protection of a certification scheme like this, but apparently people who are going to attend Labour conference are to have a scheme like this because it's important that their health gets protected.
"So when Anas Sarwar decides to have a bit of principle or a bit of consistency on this, then perhaps he can come to this chamber and expect to be taken seriously in any way, shape or form."
The Labour Party conference is due to take place from this coming Saturday (September 25) in Brighton.
The party's website states that they are asking all attendees to provide evidence of being double vaccinated against Covid-19 or a negative lateral flow test taken in the previous 24 hours if they want to gain entry into venues hosting the conference.
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