Vaccine passports: SPFL chief voices fears over lack of security staff

The Scottish Professional Football League's chief executive has said he fears there will not be enough security staff in place in time to introduce vaccine passports at major games.

Neil Doncaster told MSPs he had concerns that there were only two weeks to find extra stewards at a time when there were already shortages.

He also said bringing in extra staff could cost more than £5,000 a game.

Mr Doncaster said there initially needed to be a "light-touch approach".

He told the Scottish Parliament's Covid-19 recovery committee that spot checks at football matches would be the only practical option while clubs "get to grips" with the new arrangements.

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Vaccine passports are due to come into effect in Scotland from 1 October.

People over the age of 18 will need to show they have had both doses of a Covid vaccine before they are allowed entry to nightclubs and major events.

This includes outdoor events with more than 10,000 people, which will cover football matches involving larger clubs.

Mr Doncaster told the committee that an outer cordon of stewards at matches would be the only way to allow checks to be carried out and ensure there were no bottlenecks.

"Creating an outer cordon is the only realistic way to implement spot checking and it will clearly require a great many stewards," he said.

"There is a real shortage of security staff and stewards. At the moment it's not clear how we will find those stewards."

Neil Doncaster said spot checks were currently the only practical option for clubs

Mr Doncaster also pointed out that the last time there was an outer cordon at a major football match was at Hampden Park during the European Championships.

"That was with months of planning to allow physical infrastructure to be built and stewards to be recruited and test events to be held beforehand," he said.

"We had to make sure everything went smoothly. The weekend the vaccine passports are being introduced we have some big games with very large crowds expected.

"It is important that a light-touch approach is adopted."

He said the SPFL was in discussion with the Scottish government to see if any financial support would be available.

Gavin Stevenson, from the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, told the committee that recruiting extra security staff for vaccine passport checks at nightclubs was also a concern for the hospitality industry.

He said that under the current definition of a nightclub being considered by ministers, as many as 5,000 venues across Scotland could be affected, rather than 100 or so "genuine nightclubs".

Gavin Stevenson said that under the current definition of a nightclub, as many as 5,000 venues could be affected by the new rules

"There are severe staffing shortages in the hospitality industry which is particularly acute with door stewards," he said.

"It is the case that the door steward resources simply don't exist re any significant expansion of stewarding capability capacity across the sector.

"Even if you are just talking about 100 nightclubs, you are still talking about the crowd equivalent of Ibrox or Hampden every Friday or Saturday night. To magic up that stewarding capacity would be virtually impossible with 14 days' notice."

The vaccine passport plan was formally approved by Holyrood after the SNP and Scottish Greens voted in favour.

Some businesses have complained of a lack of detail about how the scheme will work in practice.

But Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the system would reduce the risk of virus transmission and help prevent venues - many of which have only recently reopened - from having to close again due to Covid.

The scheme for vaccine passports for entry to nightclubs and large events in England is no longer going ahead.