Following on from the England announcement Scotland has announced hospitality can reopen on July 15th but there is no news on social distancing rules.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon released a chunk of new legislation this afternoon, amongst it was the big news that our industry was waiting for but with a fucking giant gap in the information needed, with regards to social distancing. In a slightly confusing two-tier approach beer gardens can reopen on July 6th and everyone else on the 15th.
She has said that advisors are still reviewing the social distancing issue but currently it stays at 2m which will be a huge worry to our friends in Scotland. We can only hope that, like England, the government sees sense.
Much like England details of customers will have to be collected and in Scotland’s case kept for 4 weeks as opposed to England’s 3 weeks. She has also warned that the reopening will be ‘on a limited basis initially and subject to a number of conditions’. Those conditions will be released in the coming weeks and for everyone’s sake hopefully sooner rather than later.
So a bit of a double-edged sword of potential joy for the Scottish hospitality industry and we hope that the social distancing will be reduced before the 15th so they can make the most of the reopening and we can book our ticket up to see you all.