Scottish pubs and restaurants to be required by law to take contact details

Taking customer contact details will become mandatory across Scotland's hospitality sector next week, as cases linked to a coronavirus outbreak in Aberdeen pass 100.

Government guidance currently states pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants should collect customer details to allow contact tracing, but this will become law from Friday August 14.

Speaking at the Scottish Government's daily briefing in Edinburgh on Friday, the First Minister also announced an expansion of premises where face coverings will be mandatory.

They are currently compulsory on public transport and in shops, and from August 14 this will be extended to “a range of indoor premises” including libraries, museums and places of worship.

The changes follow localised outbreaks in Scotland in recent weeks, including in Aberdeen where lockdown restrictions were reintroduced on Wednesday.

Indoor hospitality venues across the city have been closed, residents are not allowed visitors to their homes and a five-mile travel limit has been put in place.

Nicola Sturgeon said a common factor in the rise in new coronavirus outbreaks across the world - including the Aberdeen cluster - is the hospitality sector, and settings such as pubs and restaurants are particularly susceptible to the virus.

She said the majority of such premises across Scotland have been complying with the guidance to note customers contact details, but some have not.

She said: “I now intend to make it mandatory for a range of settings, including hospitality businesses, to collect customer details.”

Placing compliance on a “statutory footing”, Ms Sturgeon said, will help ensure test and protect can function as effectively as possible.

She said Police Scotland will enforce the measures if necessary.

A total of 101 cases have been confirmed in the Aberdeen cluster, an increase of 22 from Thursday, the First Minister said, with 313 close contacts traced.

Of the 43 new Covid-19 cases across Scotland in the past 24 hours, provisional figures indicate more than half, 27, were in the Grampian health board area.

Ms Sturgeon said five cases were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board, down from the 17 in that location which sparked concern on Thursday.

A total of 18,890 people have now tested positive for the virus.

No patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus for 22 consecutive days, with the death toll remaining at 2,491.

Ms Sturgeon said 262 people are in hospital with confirmed Covid-19, down eight in 24 hours. Of these, four are in intensive care - which is no change from the previous day.

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