Scottish hospitality sector initiates legal challenge of COVID-19 restrictions

Five trade bodies representing the Scottish hospitality businesses said they have commenced a legal process last month against restrictions imposed on the licensed trade by the Scottish Government.

“The Scottish government’s response to our pre-action letter fails to address the group’s concerns on the government’s obligations as to constitutionality, accountability, consultation and evidence which are incumbent on the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Ministers,” commented Paul Waterson, the spokesperson for the groups.

The Scottish Beer & Pub Association, the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, UKHospitality (Scotland), the Scottish Hospitality Group and the Night Time Industries Association Scotland are part of the joint effort for a judicial review of the recent restrictive legislation relating to the hospitality sector passed by the Scottish Parliament and the actions of the Scottish Government.

Waterson alleged that ‘sweeping and draconian restrictions’ are being imposed on the sector despite any substantive or qualitative evidence of the effect the operation of hospitality and licensed premises have on the spread of Covid-19.

“The recent increased restriction moving 11 local authority areas into level four suggests that the closing of pubs and bars in October in five health board areas for three weeks prior to the introduction of the tier system, did little to bring down the rate of Covid-19 infections and yet again there was no meaningful engagement with our industry and no evidence to prove that the virus is being spread within the licensed hospitality sector,” he said.

The trade bodies have written a second joint letter to the Scottish government seeking a number of assurances and undertakings including:

• Continued improvement in consultation and communication with industry representatives with meaningful consultation at the earliest stage of decision making.
• Policy decisions in relation to the sector should be considered against the impact on businesses, with financial evidence being provided by the industry.
• Sufficient time to enable businesses to prepare for changes in policy.
• Sustained effort to ensure consistency of interpretation and enforcement of regulations by various authorities.
• Financial support must fully compensate businesses for the effects of policy decisions and be sustained over the period policies remain in place.

Waterson continued: “The group of course accept the huge challenges that the nation currently faces. The sector is more than willing to continue to play its part in the suppression of COVID-19. It is clear that there is more work to do in ensuring that the sector’s position both in what it can do to assist, but also what catastrophic financial harm is being done to it, is fully understood by the Scottish Government.”