First Minister announces levels of coronavirus restrictions

The First Minister has announced the levels of coronavirus restrictions that will be placed on Scotland’s 32 local authorities from Monday.

The majority of Scotland’s local authorities have been placed in Tier 3.

The First Minister said:

“The levels we will put in place from Monday, require more sacrifice, at a time when all of us are tired of making sacrifices.” and also warned that a national lockdown could not be ruled out, “I cannot rule out a move back to nationwide restrictions in the next few weeks, including at Level 4.”

The travel restrictions announced by the First Minister are as follows:

• If you live in a Level 3 council area or in future a Level 4 area, please do not travel outside the council area you live in – unless you require to do so for essential reasons
• If you live in a Level 1 or 2 local authority area, you must not travel into a Level 3 or Level 4 council area except for essential purposes

The STA issued the following statement to the media in response to today’s announcement:

Marc Crothall, Chief Executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance said;

“Our industry has been bracing itself for today’s announcement on the tightening on levels of restrictions which will come into force on Monday and the expected wave of cancellations throughout Scotland’s hospitality and tourism sectors which will happen as a result of these new rules.

As an industry, we have always understood the need to balance public health and the economy, however we are now at a point where many hundreds of businesses simply do not have the income or funding support to remain solvent. Businesses in Tier 2 areas had hoped for an upturn in business following the slight ease of restrictions as the majority of custom in Tier 2 would be likely to come from the Central Belt area, however due to the new travel restrictions, this will not be possible.

It is absolutely critical now that all tourism and hospitality businesses impacted by these restrictions in whatever tier they are in have immediate access to a strengthened package of support from the Scottish Government to enable them to meet their overheads and retain staff what staff they had hoped to keep on their payroll over the coming weeks and beyond to avoid permanent closure and a significant wave of redundancies.

The STA has formally requested a meeting with the First Minister to discuss the impact of the new restrictions and our renewed call for a robust package of support for the sector.”

More information on the protection levels that will apply in each local authority area in Scotland from Monday 2 November 2020, alongside evidence and analysis that informs these decisions is now available on the Scottish Government website.

Further guidance in relation to today’s announcement will be released by the Scottish Government tomorrow.