The SCOTTISH Government cannot guarantee that Central Belt pubs and restaurants will be able to re-open on October 25 when a circuit breaker lockdown is lifted.
Tourism Minister Fergus Ewing has also suggested that if further restrictions are needed later this year, officials could investigate “other options” that would not require all pubs and restaurants to be closed or handed restricted hours of trading.
Speaking on Sunday Politics Scotland, Mr Ewing acknowledged the hospitality restrictions imposed from Friday for 16 days were “having further serious effects for business”.
READ MORE: Scotland Lockdown: Why Central Belt pubs have been closed
He added: “They wouldn’t be there unless these restrictions were adjudged by the Scottish Government, on the basis of the top medical advice, to be absolutely necessary.
“Were they not in place, the worry is we would have had to go to something even more stringenst, even more tough.”
Mr Ewing pointed to an evidence paper drawn up by Scotland’s top chief clinicians which shows the “correlation in relation to gatherings of people either in hospitality settings” or when people mix in other households.
He added: “There are no absolute certainties when it comes to establishing how an individual got this virus. Absolute proof of causation doesn’t exist – correlation and evidence of correlation does exits.
“The best advice that the Scottish Government has from our experts is that when people gather together in a social setting whether it's illegal house parties or in hospitality settings, particularly where alcohol is in, that is the incidents which appears to indicate that the risk of infection of this ghastly and deadly virus is at its highest.”
READ MORE: Coronavirus Scotland: Pubs and restaurants brace for restrictions
Mr Ewing was asked if he could guarantee whether pubs and restaurants in the Central Belt, forced into temporary closure, will re-open when the restrictions are due to be lifted on October 25.
He said: “I certainly can’t guarantee that in this case. I’m acutely aware of the impacts for business.”
The Tourism Secretary was also quizzed about whether the Scottish Government would move to avoid a repeat of the tough measures if the country experienced another spike in virus cases before Christmas.
Mr Ewing said: “The First Minister has made it clear that she really wishes to avoid a further lockdown as does the leadership in other parts of the United Kingdom – that is absolutely the case.
READ MORE: Coronavirus Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon defends testing rates
“We are open to considering other options. We wish and we continue to have a rational dialogue with the leaders of tourism, the STA and others, in Scotland. We are very much discussing the detail of this and seeing what options are available.”
He added: “The vast majority of hospitality premises have been well managed and have spent a lot of money, time and effort and have scrupulously observed the Covid protocols and guidance to protect their staff and clientele.
“Therefore, if it is the case that further evidence and analysis shows that that well-managed hospitality setting for people getting together is conjusive of less risk than for example, chaotic, unmanaged, late-night drunken house parties, then I think that dialogue is something the Scottish Government wants to pursue on a team Scotland basis.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel