The Scottish Government has been laser-focused over the past year on tackling the pandemic. That will remain the case as we work to keep Scotland safe. We know, however, that because of the

incredible efforts of the people of Scotland and the vaccination programme, better times lie ahead. The question we face as we come out of the health crisis is this: who has the right to

decide the kind of country Scotland should be after the pandemic? Should it be the people who live here – or Westminster governments? The Scottish Government believes that the people of

Scotland have the right to decide how Scotland recovers from the pandemic and what sort of country they wish to build after the crisis. To ensure the people of Scotland have that right, the

hitting our economy. There will be no legal guarantee that our NHS will be safe from post-Brexit trade deals. The steady and systematic undermining of devolution and the Scottish Parliament

since the Brexit vote is likely to continue. In an independent Scotland we will always get the governments we vote for. As we recover from the pandemic those governments will put Scotland’s

economy – not Brexit – first. Protection of our NHS and control of Scotland’s abundant resources as well as spending and taxation decisions will be in Scotland’s hands. If there is a

majority in the Scottish Parliament after the forthcoming election for this bill there can be no democratic justification whatsoever for any Westminster government to seek to block a

post-pandemic referendum. The timing of that referendum should be a matter for the next Scottish Parliament to decide, taking account of the state of the pandemic. The Scottish Government

believes that it should be within the first half of the next parliamentary term, when it is safe to do so.