Further details of the new Covid-19 regulations have been made available by the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC), of which the NFRN are a member.
Regulations
Read the new regulations here: The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 12) Regulations 2021 (legislation.gov.uk) https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2021/17/pdfs/ssi_20210017_en.pdf (sections 9/10). We are pressing for publication of the promised updated Guidance.
Essential Retailers
The revised regulations are in respect of the otherwise closed ‘non-essential’ retailers who will be listed as a ‘permitted collection service’ but the regulation will not pertain to those retailers listed as essential who can open to the public. However, Scottish Government guidance – yet to be published – will strongly encourage essential retailers to mirror the regulatory requirements wherever possible and could conceivably become statutory if Ministers change their mind.
Food to Go
To read the official guidance for hospitality businesses and food to go click here
Click and Collect
Please find below a series of questions and answers put to Scottish Government with their responses (responses in italics)
- Exactly when will the new regulation come into force? 00.01 Saturday 16th January
- Will retailers have to be compliant by this time? From that time yes
- How will EHOs look to enforce this at first? Matter for EHOs but they adopt the 4 ‘E’s Approach – Engage, Explain, Encourage, Enforce
- Will there be any implementation period – the regulations come into effect at 00.01 there is not transition period
- Is click and collect from convenience stores still permitted? Essential retailers can continue to provide a click and collect service which would include, grocer/convenience stores, customers should only be leaving their house for an essential purpose
- Are appointment times to be staggered? Yes in regulation for retailers who are operating a permitted collection services list. Guidance for essential retailers will be to strongly recommend/strive to achieve the same operational circumstances where possible
- Can you detail what ‘staggered’ times will look like? Staggered/Segregated – creates an air gap – customers shouldn’t be bumping into each other during a collection or having to queue as they will be collecting at different times
- Can customers collect click and collect as normal at a ‘essential retailer’? Regulations will be in respect of the otherwise closed retailers who will become ‘permitted collection service’.
- If not, can customers collect parcels within the store at an ‘essential’ retailer Yes but our guidance will strongly encourage essential retailers to mirror the regulatory requirements wherever possible.
- Can already ordered beds and furniture be delivered into homes if customers say they are essential items? We are moving the guidance on working in peoples homes into regulation, it already permits delivery and installation and repair for an essential purpose. Whilst we understand the challenges on retailers and their inability to police customer online orders we would encourage retailers to make clear to customers that they should not be ordering items for home delivery and installation unless it is urgently required for an essential purpose. One retailer has indicated they will update their website to reflect this which is extremely helpful. It’s worth noting not permitting this will cause significant backing up within the supply chain.
- Won’t this end up meaning more people outside on the street, and therefore less ability to manage social distancing? No because you will be staggering appointment times, and the emphasis is that people should only be leaving their house for an essential purpose.
- What measures are government going to put into place to manage outside stores? The requirement to stagger appointments is designed to limit the likelihood of any customer interaction outside stores
- Are there more changes to rules affecting retailers coming? We can rule nothing out…This is about sticking to the spirit as well as letter of legislation, the virus can’t move, people move, we therefore need to limit movements to essential purposes. Anything you can do to help us with this will lessen the need to add further regulations
- Is this a permanent change or merely temporary? There is a legal requirement in the Coronavirus regulations to review these every 3 weeks
- At what point will these very onerous restrictions be relaxed? Whilst that is not possible to state they are kept under review as noted above
- How can we implement this without seeing the detailed legislation and any guidance? Regulations are now issued, guidance will follow as soon as possible, if there is a delay getting this online we will circulate via the SRC
- How will self-service kiosks (for example lockers) be affected by the new legislation? These are unaffected, however the individual will have broken the law if they leave their house for anything other than an essential purpose
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