23rd October 2020
Dear Member
COVID-19 UPDATE
Scotland – First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today (Friday) announced that Scotland will adopt a tiered approach to restricting the population and businesses in response to rising rates of coronavirus.
There will be five levels of response (bizarrely labelled from 0-4) applicable to as yet-to-be determined areas. For the hospitality sector it is a familiar story of curfews and lockdowns. In contrast to England, amusement arcades will be able to remain open up to and including level 2 alongside cinemas, whilst most other leisure venues will have to close. This is as a direct result of our lobbying efforts. Support grants for businesses required to close by law and those severely impacted by the restrictions will be available. A comprehensive guide to the new strategy is below and sets out in more detail all of the above.
covid-19-scotlands-strategic-framework4.pdf (290 downloads )Members may also be interested in the Scottish Tourism Recovery Group report published today by clicking here https://scottishtourismalliance.co.uk/tourism-recovery/. I am pleased to say that our key asks of the Scottish Government for rates relief and supply chain relief are included following our work with the Scottish Tourism Alliance. This is an influential group and hopefully will augment the case we have been putting to SG with whom incidentally we are again meeting on 30th October.
Wales – speaking of meetings, miraculously the Welsh Government has at last agreed to meet with bacta and South Wales Chairman, Richard Case and I will be virtually sitting down with them next Wednesday. We have a long list of things to discuss.
England – FYI, we understand that HSE are undertaking Covid spot checks on businesses to ensure relevant standards are being maintained. I doubt they will have the resources to cover many premises but it is a reminder that even in the current nightmare, we still need to make sure we do all we can to keep the risk of spreading the virus to an absolute minimum by following national and bacta guidance.
I will be writing to all members next week asking you to complete a short survey. The intelligence you provide on the impact of Government Measures on your business is invaluable. President James Miller and I were on a call with the head honcho at DCMS today. He confirmed that the intelligence we provide is fed in to the decision making process and he personally uses it when making representations on behalf of the industries the DCMS represent. He also confirmed that the letters you write to MPs do cut through. Please keep them going even if it feels like you are banging your head against a brick wall.
As always please do feel free to give me a call at any time to discuss any of the above.
Kind regards,
John
