Struggling businesses are in line for £4.6 billion of grants across the UK to help get them through the new lockdown.
The UK Treasury funds include £375 million for the Scottish Government to pass on, a move welcomed by Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader.
Ross tweeted: "Very welcome news for Scotland - an extra £375m to support businesses affected by lockdown measures. The SNP must get this extra funding out the door immediately - for many businesses their survival depends on it."
The funding follows announcements by First Minsiter Nicola Sturgeon and Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the UK will stay in lockdown until at least the end of January in Scotland and mid February in England while vaccines are rolled out to protect the elderly and vulnerable.
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “Throughout the pandemic we’ve taken swift action to protect lives and livelihoods and today we’re announcing a further cash injection to support businesses and jobs until the Spring.
“This will help businesses to get through the months ahead – and crucially it will help sustain jobs, so workers can be ready to return when they are able to reopen.”
The cash is included in the £8.6 billion the Treasury guaranteed to Scottish government to distribute since the crisis began.
The Scottish government has been accused by sectors like hospitality of not allocating funding or getting it out to businesses quickly enough.
The move came as senior Tory government minister Michael Gove admitted said the third UK-wide lockdown could drag on until March.
Gove warned the country was in for a “very difficult” few weeks and could give no firm date for lifting the lockdown in England.
When Johnson announced the lockdown on Monday night, he had suggested it could end as early as February 15, the usual English schools half-term holiday.
Sturgeon said on Monday that Scotland’s lockdown would be reviewed at the end of this month.
The four UK governments co-ordinate their response to the new strain of the pandemic as closely as possible. But Gove signalled on Tuesday morning the date appeared to be changing.
Speaking on Sky News, Gove warned: “The Government is doing everything it can in order to ensure that we can roll out the vaccine more rapidly, help the vulnerable by getting the inoculations they need and make sure that at the end of what will inevitably be very, very difficult weeks, that life can eventually return to normal.”
Pressed on whether the lockdown was likely to last until March, Gove added: “We will be able to review the progress that we’ve made on February 15 and we hope that we will be able to progressively lift restrictions after that but what I can’t do is predict – nobody can predict – with accuracy exactly what we will be able to relax and when.”
He added: “What we do know is that the more effective our vaccination programme, the more people who are protected in that way, the easier it will be to lift these restrictions.”
He added: “I think it’s right to say that as we enter March, we should be able to lift some of these restrictions but not necessarily all.”
