Nicola Sturgeon announced the measures today, which will force pubs in the Greater Glasgow area, Lothian, Forth Valley, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Arran, to shut for two weeks from Friday, although they will be able to serve alcohol as a takeaway. Hotels are excepted from the rule, providing they are selling to residents.

Sturgeon argued that the measures were “not easy”, but “essential” as there were “significantly higher levels of infection in the central belt”.

Across the rest of Scotland, outside the central belt, pubs and restaurants can open, but a 6pm curfew will be put in place, and no alcohol can be sold inside. Food can only being served indoors until 6pm and all alcohol will be able to be sold outside only, up until 10pm, the Scottish government said.

Retailers will also beed to return to the 2m rule for social distancing, and people are being discouraged from using public transport .

Coming as the country recorded more than 1,000 new cases in 24 hours for the first time, Sturgeon said “we need to do more and we need to do it now”.  However she added that “no one is pointing the finger of blame” at the hospitality sector and acknowledged that the majority of hospitality businesses had worked hard to protect staff and customers.

But she argued that risk remained in indoor setting where ventilation was a problem and people moved around.

“And the presence of alcohol can of course affect people’s willingness to physically distance,” she said.

Dismay

The announcement was greeted with dismay by the hospitality industry.

The Scottish Beer & Pub Association (SBPA) said that thousands of jobs are now at ‘high risk’ and that the £40million of economic support offered would be unlikely to save many businesses.  

 The SBPA’s CEO Emma McClarkin said the harsh new restrictions would deliver “a knockout blow” for many of Scotland’s  pubs and the communities they serve.

“We entirely understand and appreciate the difficult situation of the government and the need to continue to take measures to suppress the virus, but we question the fairness and wisdom of these restrictions and the level of financial support available to help our sector through this,” she said, questioning the “proportionality” of the16-day nationwide ban on indoor alcohol consumption in addition to the total closure of pubs and hospitality venues across Scotland’s central belt. 

She said that without an ability to sell any alcohol, most pubs that could open were unlikely to be viable. 

“The financial support on offer is of course welcome, but it does not go nearly far enough. For the majority of premises, the available funds will not even come close to covering the required furlough contributions for the period, never mind ongoing fixed costs and stock. We need to review the financial support on offer and work with government to protect as many pubs, jobs and livelihoods as possible,” she said.

There would also be a knockon effect on brewers, who had already seen around 50% of their on-trade business disappear this year, she added.

“The knock-on effect of these new restrictions will be felt keenly among Scotland’s brewers. As a result, there will now likely be further redundancies and jobs lost within our sector.”

Nick MacKenzie, CEO of Greene King, which has 240 pubs in Scotland and 2500 employees, called the shut-down “a devastating blow” for the thousands of people who work in the industry.

Read more at source: thedrinksbusiness

Image source: thedrinksbusiness