Responding to the latest update on lockdown restrictions from the First Minister, Dr Liz Cameron OBE, Chief Executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said:

“We know the immense relief that parents will feel today at knowing that schools will slowly and gradually re-open so that young people can resume vital face to face education. We now need to bring that same relief to businesses and employees through a clear route map for the easing of lockdown restrictions.

“Hospitality businesses who might have been holding out hope for a small lifeline in the form of some limited, domestic tourist trade come Easter will be bitterly disappointed. The fact they will have invested so much in making premises safe and risk catastrophe without being able to trade is still falling on deaf ears.

“A revised strategic framework providing a route map on the opening back of the economy is long overdue, but we will continue to work with Scottish Government to ensure jobs are not low down the list of trade-offs.

“What Scottish businesses desperately need is the confidence to plan, hire and invest and give certainty to our employees and to our customers as to when we can expect to open our doors again.”