From Saturday 12th December hospitality venues across Scotland will be able to play low level background sound again, including music and other audio.
On the 14th of August 2020, statutory guidance for the hospitality sector was introduced in response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. As part of the statutory guidance it was necessary to request, as a precautionary measure, that there should be no background sound in hospitality premises, including music and audio from televisions.
Following introduction of this measure an expert advisory group was established to look at how low level background sound might be managed in a COVID safe manner that did not interfere with speech intelligibility or cause increased vocal effort.
The advisory group, comprising independent and industry acoustic experts, government and environmental health officials, and trade representatives, has developed guidance on how this can be achieved. This guidance should be used by all hospitality premises to ensure they have in place the necessary arrangements for the safe management of low level background sound and can be found here.