First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she cannot rule out tougher covid restrictions after lockdown plans were announced in England.
The new five tier system came into force today, but the expected lockdown south of the border has led to questions on whether more stringent curbs are on their way in Scotland.
Lockdown in England will be accompanied by a time limited furlough scheme, which the SNP Government believes should apply to Scotland on a flexible basis.
At her media briefing, Sturgeon said of the looming changes in England.
“We might yet have to go further and we can’t rule out, and shouldn’t rule out, a move to level 4 for all or parts of the country.”
She added: “While that decision would never be easy, there is no doubt the availability of a more extensive furlough scheme of the kind the Prime Minister announced on Saturday, would make it slightly less difficult because workers would have more of their wages paid.”
“The decision we have to weigh up in coming days is this one: should we take the opportunity of more generous financial support to step harder on the breaks now, to try to drive infection rates down faster and more firmly?"
She said: "The potential benefit of that would be suppressing the virus further and faster at a time when financial support is available and, possibly, i don’t want to overstate this, but possibly opening up a bit of breathing space over the Christmas period.”
However, a key issue is that the Treasury funded furlough is only likely to be in force for around four weeks.
If that remains the case, with no extension, the Scottish Government will have to make an imminent decision on greater restrictons.
As an alternative, Sturgeon believes Scotland should be able to benefit from furlough outwith the one month period that is expected to apply throughout the UK from this week:
"We continue to press the case that it should be available to devolved administrations whenever it is needed."
She added that her Government had "pressed that point very firmly" at the UK-wide COBRA meeting today.
She said: "That's why I hope we get absolute clarity on that point from the Treasury today, because it matters to our decision-making here in Scotland.
"If we know furlough is available without limit of time, we might still ultimately have to act, but we could give ourselves a bit more time to assess the situation.
"However, if the furlough extension remains time limited, we will face having to take that decision more quickly."
Sturgeon also said: "It can't be right that the only time that additional financial support is made available is when the south of England needs to go into a lockdown. That just isn't fair."
