Coronavirus in Scotland: New Covid rules on face masks in the workplace

Nicola Sturgeon has announced that masks should now be worn in more public communal settings, like corridors, work canteens and break rooms.

The First Minister said: "Firstly, we will introduce regulations to extend the mandatory use of face coverings in indoor communal settings.

"This will include, for example, staff canteens and corridors in workplaces.

"We will take action to strengthen compliance with the different strands of the FACTS advice - focusing on areas where we know from research that compliance is not yet high enough, for example, the need to self-isolate.”

The new restrictions on coverings came into effect today and applies to everyone in Scotland, with exemptions.

Where are face coverings mandatory?

A face covering is mandatory in a number of indoor settings, as well as on public transport. 

These include:

• Airline services.
• Amusement arcades and other leisure facilities (such as snooker and pool halls).
• Aquariums, indoor zoos or visitor farms, and any other indoor tourist, heritage or cultural site.
• Banks, building societies and credit unions.
• Bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants except when an exemption applies.
• Bingo halls.
• Bowling alleys.
• Bus services.
• Bus stations, railway stations (including open air stations) and airports.
• Casinos.
• Cinemas.
• Community centres.
• Crematoriums and funeral directors' premises.
• Ferry services (unless the ferry is open to the elements and physical distancing can be achieved, or the vessel is large enough that physical distancing can be achieved).
• Indoor fitness studios, gyms, swimming pools or other indoor leisure centres.
• Indoor funfairs.
• Libraries, public reading rooms, museums and galleries.
• Places of worship.
• Post offices.
• Public communal settings, like corridors, work canteens and break rooms
• Shops, takeaway restaurants, pharmacies, estate agents, beauty parlours.
• Storage and distribution facilities, including collection and drop off points.
• Taxi and private hire vehicles.
• Train services including the Glasgow subway and Edinburgh Tram.

Who is exempt from wearing a face covering?

According to the Scottish Government website, there are a number of reasons to be exempt from wearing a face covering.

These include:

• Babies, toddlers and children under 5 years of age.
• People who have a health condition or who are disabled, including hidden disabilities, for example, autism, dementia or a learning disability, or are providing care for someone with a health condition or disability, and a face covering would be inappropriate because it would cause difficulty, pain or severe distress or anxiety to the wearer or the person in the care of the wearer. This includes children with breathing difficulties and disabled children who would struggle to wear a face covering.
• You cannot apply a covering and wear it in the proper manner safely and consistently.
• Anyone who needs to take medication and cannot do so whilst wearing a face covering.
• A person who is communicating with someone else who relies on lip reading and facial expressions to communicate. Such people should remove the face covering only temporarily whilst communicating and replace it immediately afterwards.
• Anyone who is seeking medical assistance, or acting to avoid injury, illness or harm, and where wearing a face covering would make this more difficult. This also applies if someone needs emergency assistance and they don’t have a face covering with them or there is not time to put one on.
• A person who is providing care or assistance to a vulnerable person and where wearing a face covering would make this more difficult. This also applies if someone needs emergency assistance and they don’t have a face covering with them or there is not time to put one on.
• Exemption for couples during their indoor marriage ceremony or civil partnership registration, providing there is a partition or 2 metres can be maintained between the couple and other people.