CORONAVIRUS CRISIS REPORTS

Fears for tens of thousands of jobs as ‘scapegoat’ pubs closed

TENS of thousands of jobs are under threat as pubs and restaurants across the Central Belt are forced into a 16-day shutdown from 6pm today.

All such venues in five health board areas must shut until October 25, while those elsewhere serving customers indoors cannot sell alcohol and must close at 6pm.

Fears have been raised that many of Scotland’s 18,000 pubs and restaurants will not be able to survive – and the restrictions come despite little clear evidence they have fuelled the spread of coronavirus.

The Scottish Government was last night unable to say how many people have been infected in the hospitality sector.

Willie Macleod, executive director of UK Hospitality, said: ‘Closing bars and restaurants is going to have a massive impact on businesses that are really just climbing back from a prolonged period of lockdown.

‘They’ve reopened with reduced capacity to cope with social distancing, they were then hit by the 10pm curfew and, with reduced demand and reduced consumer confidence, business

‘Business resilience is as low as it can be’

resilience is as low as it can be. Many businesses won’t survive and I’m afraid we’re going to see tens of thousands of job losses.’

Mr Macleod claimed ministers have been unable to provide adequate proof to support the latest restrictions.

An‘ evidence paper’ published by the Scottish Government states that interviews by Test and Protect staff with people who had tested positive found that more than 26 per cent of them, in the period from the end of July to the beginning of October, had ‘ exposure’ to hospitality premises in the previous seven days.

But the report adds: ‘ The data does not indicate where people who have tested positive were infected. It is not a measure of causation except if there is a clear and bounded outbreak.’

It warns risks in hospitality are ‘exacerbated by some behaviours’, noting: ‘ As people will generally visit with family or friends they will naturally be less concerned about distancing and this behaviour will also be influenced by the disinhibiting impact of alcohol.’

Mr Macleod said: ‘It is not clear to me that these people have only been in hospitality settings. So it does seem the hospitality sector is being singled out there as being a significant source of transmission.

‘That section of the evidence report doesn’t convince me and we had no opportunity to question that data or these conclusions.’

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: ‘The hospitality industry has been diligent about putting safety measures in place. It would be easier for people to see and understand the effectiveness of the measures being put in place if there was more detail available.

‘The public need to know these measures are guided by science.’

The Scottish Government was unable to provide figures for the number of people who caught the virus in a hospitality venue.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman admitted the evidence published is ‘not causal’ and ‘does not mean necessarily that individuals were infected in those circumstances, but it does mean that they were in those hospitality settings’.

A spokesman for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘A significant number of infections relates to hospitality or can be traced in some way to hospitality.’

Conservative MSP Rachael Hamilton, who owns a hotel in the Borders, yesterday accused the Scottish Government of throwing hospitality firms ‘off a cliff ’.

Kenny Blair, manager of Buzzworks Holdings, which has 12 venues across central Scotland, said the hospitality industry is being made a ‘scapegoat’.

Mr Blair, who employs around 500 people, estimates he will lose £1million in revenue over the 16 days. He said: ‘ Many businesses are already substantially weakened and this may be the final straw.

‘We are hoping to reopen [after] 16 days but if that’s not the case we will have to make some serious decisions about our workforce.’

Mr Blair, a member of the Scottish Hospitality Group, added: ‘We’ve been made a scapegoat in this. Unless we see evidence it’d be difficult to change our opinion.’