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Scottish indoor booze ban

Emma Lunn
Written By:
Emma Lunn
Posted:
Updated:
07/10/2020

Pubs, restaurants and cafes in Scotland are barred from selling alcohol indoors for 16 days.

Nicola Sturgeon has banned Scotland’s pubs banned from serving alcohol inside for more than two weeks, with licensed premises in areas where coronavirus infection rates are rising the quickest shutting completely.

Scotland’s first minister announced the crackdown on indoor drinking after confirming that a further 1,054 people testing positive for Covid-19 yesterday.

The new rules will come into effect on Friday at 6pm, and last until Sunday 25 October inclusive.

Pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes will be able to sell food and non-alcoholic drinks indoors from 6am to 6pm. They can continue to serve alcohol outdoors up to the current curfew of 10pm.

But in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, the Lothians, Ayrshire and Arran and Forth Valley, pubs will be shut both inside and outside, although takeaways will be allowed. The only exception is licensed premises in hotels which will remain open for residents.

People in these five areas are also being asked to avoid public transport, and not to travel outside the area they live in unless they have to. Casinos, bingo halls, indoor bowling, snooker and pool clubs will also have to stop trading in the problem areas.

Hotels can stay open during the period, but the restrictions will also ban group classes in gyms and contact sports, and outdoor live events. Pre-arranged weddings and funerals can go ahead.

People are being asked to work from home where possible.

However, Sturgeon said she was not ordering a second lockdown and promised a further £40m to support businesses affected by these measures over the next two weeks.

Scotland has already faced stricter measures than elsewhere in the UK with Scots banned from visiting friends and family in their homes, and a limit for six people from two households in force for outdoor gatherings.

The rules come after days of speculation that Scotland might be subject to a two-week “circuit breaker”, similar to the March lockdown.