The Scottish Government has made a number of announcements on support measures and changes to their guidance package on the Covid–19 pandemic as we go into a new tiered system of restrictions from Monday 2nd November.
Our News and Updates Alert this evening contains the vital information that is currently available and the SLTA will continue to give updates as things develop.
From Monday 2nd November each area of Scotland will be assigned to a COVID protection level. There are 5 protection levels and the Government has updated its guidance for the Tourism and Hospitality Sector including procedures for staff and customer safety and an operations checklist. This update can be accessed here.
A Q&A on the guidance has also been produced and can be accessed here.
The full regulations, 62 pages, were also laid before Parliament this afternoon and the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020, which come in to force on Monday 2nd November can be viewed here.
For a table of the hospitality restriction measures across all levels click here.
You can also find out what you can and cannot do in general based on the local area that you live, work or travel in here. The Government will shortly also have a postcode checker available to help you confirm your local area.
The Scottish Government Economy Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, gave a media briefing earlier today.
Key points from her announcement were:-
- The latest monthly GDP data shows that while the Scottish economy grew for the fourth consecutive month in August and has recovered around 60 per cent of the output lost during March and April, the pace of growth has slowed in August as it did in the UK as a whole.
- Next week will see the introduction of the new Strategic Framework to help suppress the virus. This is accompanied by a refreshed programme of support for businesses, from 2 November, with grants of £2,000 or £3,000 – depending on the business’s rateable value – where they are required to close by law. That’s payable every four weeks in arrears, for the duration of the restrictions.
- We recognise that it is not only businesses who are required to close who will be impacted by the new restrictions. There is also a hardship grant of £1,400 or £2,100 for businesses that remain open but are required by the regulations to limit the hours they can open or specify limitations on their operations.
- In addition, we are extending the eligibility criteria for the support for nightclubs announced earlier this week to provide all nightclubs, within the agreed definition, with full funding – regardless of whether they adapted their premises and opened in a limited way for any period.
The Economy Secretary’s full briefing can be seen here.