Dear First Minister,

Regulations for pubs and bars

We are writing, after the first week of opening, regarding the regulations for pubs and bars in Scotland and urging and the Scottish Government to understand the reality of the very difficult situation for many publicans, especially in small community pubs and bars and, in particular, pubs and bars that don’t serve food.

Many of Scotland’s pubs and bars have been closed since October, so closed now for some six months or so. Support given to pubs by the Scottish and the UK Governments, whilst being welcome, has in most cases not even covered ongoing bills, including rent and many Scottish publicans are now in debt as a result of the disastrous loss of business over the last year.

As it is, the rule that pubs can only serve alcohol outside in Scotland is clearly a huge problem for ‘wetled’ pubs and the weather in Scotland in April means that opening is a risk for many, with the possibility that pubs will simply not be able to trade profitably. Pubs in England benefited at least from two weeks of fine weather, but alas the reopening in Scotland has been with poor weather in many areas so this has been a very disappointing week of trade for many pubs and bars. We do not see what scientific evidence there can be that justifies the outdoors only rule…