Scotland faces lockdown “dilemma” if furlough limited to England timescale, Sturgeon warns

The First Minister says “difficult decisions” lie ahead if the UK Government cannot offer flexibility on additional funding.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she cannot rule out moving all or part of Scotland into level four restrictions to have the “opportunity” of the extended Job Retention Scheme.

It comes as England is preparing to move into a second national lockdown on Thursday for four weeks, as announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the weekend.

Mr Johnson confirmed the Job Retention Scheme would be extended for the month of November.

But leaders of the UK devolved administrations have raised concerns with the treasury, asking for a furlough scheme to be made available if and when it is needed.

At the Scottish Government daily briefing, Ms Sturgeon said she had attended a COBRA meeting chaired by UK Government cabinet minister Michael Gove.

She said: “The Scottish Government is considering carefully any implications for Scotland from the announcements for England.

“At this stage, the indication is that the more generous furlough scheme is only going to be available for the next month during the period of England’s lockdown.

“We continue to press the case that it should be available to devolved administrations whenever it is needed and I think most reasonable people would think that is the fair position.

“I, along with colleagues in the Welsh and Northern Irish governments, have pressed that point very firmly at the COBRA meeting which has just concluded.”

It comes as the new tiered system of coronavirus restrictions has come into force in Scotland this week – with Glasgow and other central belt areas in level three.

Heightened measures had already been in place across the country, with most hospitality businesses across Scotland’s highest-prevalence areas having been closed for over three weeks.

The First Minister said there are early indications that these restrictions have been working to prevent further spread of the virus.

But she warned all or part of Scotland may need to move to level four to make use of the furlough scheme if it remains time-limited.

She said: “We think we can see some encouraging signs that these restrictions are having an impact; the rate of increase in cases has been slowing down.

“However the impact is at this stage still quite gradual and we can’t yet be sure that it will be sustained or that it will go as far as we need it to go.

“It would be wrong to say we have no concerns about the next few weeks […] we still face a lot of uncertainty.

“That’s why I made it clear last week when I set out the levels that would apply initially that we might yet have to go further and that we can’t rule out and shouldn’t rule out a move to level four for all or parts of the country.

“While that decision would never be easy, there is no doubt that the availability of a more extensive furlough scheme of the kind that the Prime Minister announced on Saturday would make it slightly less difficult.

“The decision we have to weight-up in the coming days is this one – should we take the opportunity of more generous financial support to step harder on the breaks now to try and drive infection rates down faster and more firmly.

“The potential benefit of that would be suppressing the virus further and faster at a time when financial support is available and possibly – without overstating this – a bit of breathing space over the Christmas period.

“Ideally, we would assess the impact of the current restrictions for a bit longer before making that decision.”

Fraser Nicoll