‘Don’t shop your neighbour – just let police do their job’
Sturgeon in call for collective solidarity as ‘rule of six’ comes into force
SCOTS have been told not to shop their neighbours if they breach new ‘rule of six’ coronavirus rules.
Nicola Sturgeon refused to follow the UK Government’s lead yesterday and urged people to let police deal with ‘flagrant’ breaches of social gathering regulations.
The First Minister said that instead of reporting family or friends for flouting the Covid-19 restrictions, people should to stick to the rules out of a ‘sense of solidarity’.
As of yesterday, all gatherings are limited to six people from only two households.
Police Scotland have been given additional powers allowing them to enter residential properties in order to break up groups who breach the ‘rule of six’ limits.
In Scotland, the new legally enforceable rules mean that people can only gather in groups of six indoor and outdoors, this includes in residential properties, as well as pubs, restaurants, cafes and parks.
Although children do not count towards the maximum number of people, they do count in the number of households.
This means only children from two separate households can play together in a playpark, or open space – with their parents legally responsible for ensuring their youngsters stick to the rules.
Parents could potentially be given a fixed-penalty fine if their children socialise more widely outside of school.
It also means unorganised sporting activities, such as five-a-side football or training at local parks is banned.
UK policing minister Kit Malthouse told the BBC that it is ‘open to neighbours’ to report all potential breaches of the new rule of six in England to the ‘non emergency number’. He said: ‘And if they are concerned and they do see that kind of thing, then absolutely they should think about it.’
In England, the rules are more relaxed, with six people from six different households allowed to meet at social gatherings.
Asked at her daily briefing if she would echo Mr Malthouse’s call for people to report neighbours to the police, Miss Sturgeon said the country was ‘better served by a collective solidarity’.
She said: ‘I don’t want to see it, if we can at all avoid it, as spying on your neighbours, or reporting on your neighbours to the police.
‘I want all of us to come at this from “Why are we doing this?”. It is to protect each other and it’s served us well so far and I think it will continue to serve us well.
‘That said, and the chief constable has said, if you are worried that somebody close to you, physically in close proximity to you or someone you are aware of is flagrantly breaking the rules and having a house party or something the police are there to deal with, it shouldn’t be for you to have to go and deal with that.
‘It should be for the police to come and they will deal with it in their proportionate and sensitive way. And where necessary they will take enforcement action and that is the police’s part of this overall collective endeavour.’
Miss Sturgeon warned that those taking risks during the pandemic are putting others at risk, including their family and friends. She added: ‘But I come back to this, this is different to the kind of normal situation individuals face.
‘The police are there to do a job, people should have recourse to that when they feel it is necessary.
‘But if we all act in that spirit of collective solidarity, the occasions in which people will need to do that will be fewer than they will be otherwise.’
Police Scotland was previously given powers allowing them to enter properties to break up large house parties and disperse gatherings.
The move followed a rise in Covid cases and concerns that new outbreaks were linked to indoor gathering, mainly in households.
The new ‘rule of six’ will also hand police more powers of entry. It allows officers to enter a property and break up gatherings if they believe there are more than six people from two households inside. They will need permission of the homeowner or a warrant.
Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham said: ‘Our approach throughout the pandemic has been to engage with the public, explain the legislation and guidance and encourage compliance, only using enforcement as a last resort.
‘We will continue with that approach, but we will not hesitate to use enforcement action where it is necessary.
‘We have had almost 68,000 interactions with the public since the start of this emergency and have had to take enforcement action on only around 3,600 occasions.’
‘Enforcement as a last resort’