The First Minister said that the rationale for this decision was due to the Scottish Government’s plans to publish a new strategic framework for handling the virus on Friday, and that the timescale for introducing that new system meant that a short-term decision by the Scottish Government was required on the hospitality restrictions.

The New Strategic Framework:

• The new strategic framework will include different levels of restrictions that can be applied nationally or regionally, it may lead to tighter restrictions for all or parts of Scotland;
• It will be subject to parliamentary approval and, if that is gained, it is intended that the levels will be applied by 2 November;
• In her briefing, the first minister set out details of how the five-tier system will work, saying the middle three would be “broadly equivalent” to the three-tier system in use in England.
• The Scottish system will add an extra tier at the bottom – which Ms Sturgeon said will be “the closest to normality we can reasonably expect to live with until we have a vaccine” – and one at the top; and
• The new five-tier framework will include details of financial support for businesses hit by enforced closures, which Ms Sturgeon will be “broadly similar” to that on offer in other parts of the UK.
  Business Support.

We await further details on the ‘Scottish Government Wage Support Scheme’, which is up to £9 million of funding that will help with the costs of re-furloughing staff by supporting the 20% salary contribution required by the UK Government, announced on the 9th of October.