Scottish Government takeaway restrictions – Summary

Nicola Sturgeon has now outlined the nature of restriction on collections from takeaways in Scotland.

The guidance, which is available here, outlines that customers can no longer enter the premises for takeaway orders & collections. However, walk-up orders and pre-orders can be taken and passed to the customer through a doorway or service hatch. The relevant section the guidance now states Takeaways can only operate for delivery or on a no-entry basis for either pre-order or walk-up service.

In our view, it’s good news that the restrictions did not go as far as anticipated and that there is still a route for walk-up custom to continue. We welcome thoughts from you on what impact this could have on business.

Summary

This afternoon, Nicola Sturgeon set out further restrictions that will take effect in Scotland from Saturday. There are six key changes, which are:

1. The availability and operation of click and collect services for retailers will be limited. Only retailers offering essential items will be able to offer click and collect and those who do will need to offer staggered appointments. Customers will also not be able to enter the premises for the purposes of collection.
2. For takeaway services, customers will no longer be able to enter a premises to collect or order food or drink. This will have to be provided at the doorway or through a service hatch or similar.
3. The consumption of alcohol outdoors in public will no longer be allowed in all Level 4 areas.
4. Household mixing outside will be limited to one other person from another household, in groups no bigger than two people.
5. Statutory guidance will be introduced to make clear to employers that they must support employees to work from home wherever possible. If employees were working from home in the lockdown from March last year, they should also be doing so now and employers should be facilitating this.
6. The guidance on work taking place inside people’s homes will be put into law. This means work can only take place in private dwellings if it is essential to the upkeep, functioning or maintenance of the dwelling.

The law will also be amended to make clear that people can only leave home – and remain outside the home – for essential purposes. This is to avoid people leaving the home for an essential purpose and then carrying out a non-essential activity. However, there will be no time limit on how long someone can remain outside the home.

Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged the toughness of these restrictions but said there were some grounds for hope, with early signs showing that lockdown is starting to have an effect. She also noted that the aim was to have the first vaccine doses for all over 80s to be completed by the start of February.

The updated guidance on the changes can be found here.