The National Cyber Security Centre is working hard to get more girls interested in a career in cyber security. The CyberFirst Girls Competition provides a fun but challenging environment to inspire the next generation of young women to consider a career in cyber security.
The competition is a team event, with each one made up of 4 female students from Year 8 in England and Wales, Year 9 in Northern Ireland and S2 in Scotland.
It consists of three distinct phases:
the online qualifying round to identify the top teams in each home nation and English region
the semi-final where teams will battle it out in their areas to qualify for a place in the Grand Final
the Grand Final where the top ten teams drawn from the regions in England, and from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will gather to compete for the title of UK CyberFirst Girls Competition Winners.
Whatever your ability, from beginner to expert, the CyberFirst Girls Competition is an opportunity to learn something new about cyber security.
1200 (noon) 25th January – 1200 (noon) 3rd February 2021 – online qualifying round
12th March 2021 – Home nations and English regions semi-final
26th April 2021 – Grand Final
We will be sticking to the same format as last year which seeks to encourage and recognise participation from all parts of the UK, whilst making some changes to ensure the competition can run in a Covid-secure way.
To begin with, there will be an online qualifier round lasting 10 days, followed by a semi-final round and a Grand Final.
The content for each category of the competition is consistent with subjects within the Computer Science syllabus from both the National Curriculum and Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.
However, the competition will contain some advanced cyber topics that are not covered in traditional education but will seek to stretch the lateral thinking and additional cyber knowledge of the teams.
What you need to know:
Teams can … register now! Registration opened on 30th November, and stays open until the qualifier closes on 3rd February 2021. We would recommend registering ahead of the online qualifier though.
Teams are……made up of up to four female students in Year 8, S2 or Year 9 (NI).
Teams need……to be supported by a responsible adult appointed by the school who is aged over 18 years and who can act as the team guardian.
Team guardians……do not need to have any cyber knowledge or be an IT or computer science teacher. Their role is to register the teams and facilitate access to the competition.
Schools can……enter as many teams as they like if they fit the qualifying criteria (see above).
The semi-final round…..will take place during the school day. Students will need to be taken off the day’s timetable should they qualify.
The Grand Final……will take place during the school day. Students will need to be taken off the day’s timetable should they qualify.
Following the latest coronavirus guidelines announced on Monday, Granton Information Centre staff are working from home and our office on West Granton Road will remain closed for the foreseeable future – BUT PLEASE BE ASSURED THAT WE ARE STILL OPERATING!
You can contact us by email at info@gic.org.uk or by calling 0131 551 2459 or 0131 552 0458.
Any messages left on our answering machine will be dealt with as soon as possible – please ensure you clearly leave your full name and telephone number when leaving a message.
Let’s all play our part in keeping each other safe, stopping this terrible virus and getting life back to normal!
The British Liver Trust is calling for every person in the UK to consider their liver health and take a simple quiz to assess their risk during January after adults across the UK admit to making unhealthy lifestyle choices in 2020.
Over a million adults in the UK may currently have the early stages of liver disease but are unaware and have no symptoms.1,3. Worryingly, rising rates of obesity means that 150,000 children could also have non-alcohol related fatty liver disease.2
January is often a time that people take stock after the Christmas period but this year it is even more important as the numbers at risk have also increased during the Covid pandemic. Many people have increased their alcohol consumption and gained weight during lockdown – the two biggest risk factors for developing liver disease.
The British Liver Trust is calling for the nation to improve their liver health and find out more about the risk factors during National Love Your Liver month.
The charity has issued the stark warning after:
One in five adults are thought to be at risk due to either being overweight or drinking too much alcohol.3
4000 people in 2020 missed a free liver scan as the charities Love Your Liver Roadshow had to be cancelled.4
An analysis of previous years data indicates 650 of those would have shown signs of possible liver damage.
28% of people admitted to drinking more during lockdown.5
The charity is also launching a free new diet fact sheet which is packed full of tips on what to eat to improve your liver health:
Most liver disease can be prevented with simple lifestyle changes. More than 90% is due to three main risk factors: obesity, alcohol and viral hepatitis. The British Liver Trust’s Love Your Liver campaign focuses on three simple steps to improve your liver health: https://www.britishlivertrust.org.uk/love-your-liver-screener
Drink less than 14 units of alcohol and have three consecutive days off alcohol every week
Eat a healthy diet and take more exercise
Know the risk factors for viral hepatitis and get tested or vaccinated if at risk. There are now highly effective cures for hepatitis
Before the pandemic, the Love Your Liver roadshows helped to raise awareness of the risk factors for liver disease among the general population.
Vanessa Hebditch, Director of Policy and Communications at the British Liver Trust says: “In early 2020, our Love Your Liver health screening roadshow was ready to tour the nation, offering free liver health checks to the general public at high streets up and down the county.
“Unfortunately, Covid-19 forced us to postpone the roadshow. That meant that around 4,000 people will have missed out on a free liver health check. If we look at the statistics from previous Roadshows, around 650 of those would have shown signs of possible liver damage.
“We are very concerned that while thousands will have missed out on valuable liver health advice, some of those people will already have undiagnosed liver disease which won’t show symptoms until the very late stages when treatment options are limited.
“2020 was a really stressful year for everyone. We know from our research that a lot of people drank more alcohol and ate unhealthier food last year – two major risk factors for liver disease. We also know that some people have missed out on appointments and treatment while healthcare resources have been diverted elsewhere as a result of the pandemic.”
Beth came to a Love Your Liver roadshow in 2019. She says: “I wasn’t sure what state my liver would be and it has always concerned me as I have often used alcohol to relieve stress throughout my life.
“I was nervous going in for the test when I saw the roadshow but knew that I needed to know the truth of what I was doing to my liver.
“It does take guts to have a liver scan and it was good to know the result gave me a chance to reflect and take some steps in my life to be stronger willed in making healthier choices.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a statement at the coronavirus press conference yesterday (Tuesday 5 January):
Good afternoon,
I want to update everybody about vaccines because across this entire country today there are people – everybody – making another huge sacrifice.
Teachers and pupils coping with online learning
Businesses who have borne the brunt of successive lockdowns,
and, of course, the amazing staff of our NHS and our care workers who are grappling with a new variant – this new variant – of coronavirus.
And I believe that when everybody looks at the position people understand overwhelmingly that we have no choice when the Office of National Statistics is telling us that more than 2 per cent of the population is now infected – that’s over 1 million people in England – and when today we have reported another 60,000 new cases. And when the number of patients in hospitals in England is now 40 per cent higher than at the first peak in April.
I think obviously – everybody, you all – want to be sure that we in government are now using every second of this lockdown to put that invisible shield around the elderly and the vulnerable in the form of vaccination and so to begin to bring this crisis to an end.
And I can tell you that this afternoon, with Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca combined, as of this afternoon we have now vaccinated over 1.1 million people in England and over 1.3 million across the UK.
And that includes more than 650,000 people over 80, which is 23 per cent of all the over 80s in England
And that means that nearly 1 in 4 of one of the most vulnerable groups will have in 2 to 3 weeks – all of them – a significant degree of immunity.
And when you consider that the average age of Covid fatalities is in the 80s you can see the importance of what we have already achieved.
And that is why I believe that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation was right to draw up a programme aimed at saving the most lives the fastest.
So by February 15th, as I said last night, the NHS is committed to offering a vaccination to everyone in the top four priority groups including older care home residents and staff, everyone over 70, all frontline NHS and care staff and all those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
And to help us with meeting this target we already have 595 GP-led sites providing vaccines, with a further 180 coming on stream later this week.
We have 107 hospital sites – with a further 100 later this week
So that is almost a thousand sites – vaccination sites – across the country by the end of this week
And next week we will also have 7 vaccination centres opening in places such as sports stadia and exhibition centres.
We know that there will still be long weeks ahead in which we must persevere with these restrictions, but I want to give you – the British people – the maximum possible transparency about this vaccine roll out with more detail on Thursday and daily updates from Monday so that you can see, day by day and jab by jab, how much progress we are making.
Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House on Tuesday 5 January 2021:
Good afternoon everyone and since this is the first media briefing of the new year let me wish all of you a happy new year. This year is having a very difficult start but we do hope that it will nevertheless bring better times ahead.
Now I’m going to say more in a few moments about the announcements that I set out in parliament yesterday. But as usual I will give you an update on today’s statistics first.
I can tell you that the total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 2,529.
That represents 14.8% of the total number of tests, and it means that the total number of confirmed cases that we now have in Scotland is139,027.
Analysis of PCR samples also shows that the new variant is now responsible for around 50% of new cases in Scotland – and that that is a proportion that is rising.
695 of the new cases today were in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 388 in Lanarkshire, 322 in Lothian, and 210 in Tayside. The remaining cases are spread across eight other health board areas.
1,347 people are currently in hospital – now, we haven’t been reporting hospital and ICU figures over the New Year bank holiday period, but to give you some context for that figure today I can tell you that it is 255 more people in hospital now than was the case a week ago – exactly a week ago today.
And 93 people are in intensive care, and that is 28 more than a week ago today.
11 additional deaths have been registered in the past 24 hours, of patients who first tested positive in the previous 28 days. Of course, yesterday was a bank holiday so it is possible that this figure today is artificially low as a result of that.
But it means that the total number of deaths reported under this daily measurement, is now 4,633. And of course every single one of these deaths – I report them here on a daily basis as statistics – but every single one of those statistics represents a human being who has lost their lives to this virus and will have left behind grieving families and friends.
So again today, my condolences and thoughts go to every individual and family who is in that situation.
Now, I am joined today by the National Clinical Director, he is going to help me answer questions in a few moments. But before we get to questions, I would like to emphasise the key points that I set out yesterday in parliament.
Firstly, just to reiterate that the current situation that we face now in the pandemic is, in my view, more serious than it has been at any time since the spring.And that’s because this new more transmissible variant of Covid is becoming increasingly common as I said a moment ago.
And as a result of that, cases are rising much more steeply and rapidly than they had been in the latter part of last year; and as a result of that more people are likely to become seriously ill; and the health service will come under more severe pressure.
That of course is the negative – the worrying – position we face, and I don’t say it for exaggeration, I say it because we all must take that seriously right now.
But of course, there is a difference between now last spring, and that is a positive difference. And that of course is the fact that vaccines have been approved for use in the UK now and vaccines we know does offer us the way out of this pandemic.
More than a hundred thousand people in Scotland have already been vaccinated. And, as I set out in parliament yesterday, we expect – although these timetables are still tentative – that by May more than 2.5 million people will have received vaccination – at least the first dose of the vaccination.
That includes everyone on what is called the JCVI priority list – everyone over the age of 50, and people under 50 who have specific underlying health conditions.
Now we will do everything we can to speed that up to deliver vaccines as quickly as possible, and we will set out what our expectations are around that as the certainty we have on the flow of supplies becomes much firmer – I hope, in the days and weeks to come.
But in the race we currently face – and I am describing it deliberately as a race between the vaccine and the virus, because that really is in essence what it is – we can’t rely solely on speeding up vaccination.
That’s really important, but because this new variant is spreading so much more quickly we must also act as we vaccinate more people to slow the virus down so that the vaccination can get ahead and ultimately be in a position where it wins the race.
And, the new variant – because it is much easier to transmit, and spreads more quickly –means that slowing it down is more difficult and to achieve that takes much stricter restrictions than the ones that have been in place over the past few months.
And that is why we got to the position yesterday of announcing what is effectively a new lockdown.
And the key message we want to convey and are conveying and stressing very, very strongly is a simple message – not simple to abide by, but simple for me to communicate, and it’s a similar message to the one I communicated for much of last year and that is: stay at home.
Staying at home whenever possible is the best way now of protecting ourselves, protecting each other, protecting the NHS and – ultimately – saving lives.
There are of course specified essential purposes for which you can leave your house – these include exercise, essential shopping, providing care, perhaps for a vulnerable relative.
And because extended households are still permitted, to try and help us in some way tackle the loneliness and isolation of these restrictions, you can also leave your home to visit the other people in your extended household.
But fundamentally, I’m asking everybody to really try hard to stay at home as much as possible – and only leave home if it is for a genuinely essential purpose.
And that means that you must work from home if you can.
In fact, it is only permissible to leave home to go to work if you cannot work from home.
Now, businesses, employers have a big part to play in ensuring we achieve that. The Economy Secretary spoke to business organisations yesterday to reinforce this message.
And I want to be clear that we really need businesses in this next phase – as they have been throughout – to be responsible, to help us fight this virus.
And that means – just as this is true for individuals for the stay at home message – it means not always looking for the loophole that allows you to stay open or have your staff physically at work. Instead it means thinking about how you as a business can maximise your contribution to the collective challenge that we all now face.
And in return, government must do – and we will continue to do – all we can to maximise the financial support available to you.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has just announced this morning additional financial support for businesses, and we are over the course of the day trying to get clarity of the detail on that so that we then know what that enables us to do in addition to the considerable financial support for businesses that is already in place.
Returning to what lockdown means for all of us as individuals, we have also introduced tighter restrictions on outdoor socialising, because this virus we know is spreading more easily. So it is still possible to meet someone outdoors – but only two people from two households can now meet up – previously it was up to six people from two households, but now only two people from a maximum of two households.
That rule applies to everyone who is aged 12 and over – and that means that outdoor exercise should also only take place in groups of two, and no more than two households.
Now we announced several other significant restrictions yesterday – you can find full details of these on the Scottish Government website. And where there is a need for it we will put forward and publish additional guidance to help people navigate their way through this as well as we can.
Now one thing I want to mention specifically, because I know it is very distressing for many people – and that was the announcement yesterday that places of worship will close over this next period as well – except for funerals and weddings.
I know for people in faith communities who take great comfort from collective worship this is a particularly large restriction to bear. But we do deem it essential at the moment to help us with that overall task of keeping the virus, or getting the virus back under control.
But we will not keep these restrictions in place for any longer than necessary.
We have also, of course, regrettably decided that school and nursery buildings will only be open for children of key workers and vulnerable pupils until at least 1 February.
For that time, remote learning will continue for the majority of pupils, and this is without a doubt – I said this yesterday but it is worth repeating – the most difficult of the restrictions that we put in place yesterday. I know how tough it will be for pupils, who as well as missing education in the normal school environment will be missing your friends and the normal social aspect of growing up and enjoying your school life. And I am sorry about that and we will try and get you back to school as quickly as possible.
But this is also difficult for parents – particularly those who are working and who are trying to juggle online learning, and we are thinking about what more support we can put in place to help you through this difficult period.
The decision on schools will be reviewed fortnightly – and we will do everything we can to get as many pupils as possible back to school as soon as it is safe to do so.
But at the moment, the community transmission of the virus is too high, and still rising – and also there is some uncertainty about the impact of the new variant on young people, and those two things together lead us to the judgement that it is not safe enough to have schools open right now for the majority of pupils as normal.
Now, the measures that were announced yesterday that I’ve just run through here today are of course not the start to this year that any of us would have wanted.
They are really tough for businesses, for individuals – and as I have said at a couple of occasions already, we will consider what further support we are able to provide.
But the current figures, including those I have reported today, tell us that action is needed.
This new variant is so much more easily transmitted that without these tougher restrictions, cases in Scotland would definitely continue to rise very, very sharply.
And that, of course, creates the likelihood that more people get ill and die than would otherwise be the case, but it also creates the real risk that our National Health Service – which is currently coping, although the pressure on frontline staff is considerable – but it creates the real risk that it would instead be overwhelmed and perhaps quite quickly.
So by acting now, instead of waiting until things get more severe, we give ourselves the chance to avert the more serious challenge that is currently being faced in some other parts of the UK right now.
I know that doesn’t provide any comfort, and nor does it create any comfort for me to say that we are not alone – but we are not alone. People in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are waking up today to similar restrictions, and many other countries across Europe are in similar positions.
But, while this is hard for everybody to take we must hold on to the fact – and it is a fact – that we now have, in a way that we didn’t have last year, a clear route out of this pandemic through the vaccination programme.
And the Scottish Government will be doing everything we possibly can to accelerate, speed up that programme, and get the maximum number of people vaccinated as quickly as possible. But while we’re doing that, we absolutely must – all of us – collectively work to slow down this virus
That’s why these measures are essential and it’s why again I must ask everybody to really rigorously abide by all of these restrictions.
That means following the FACTS advice: wear face coverings; avoid crowded places when you are out of your house, which you shouldn’t be unless it is essential; wash your hands, wash hard surfaces, even when you are staying at home it’s really important still to do that; keep a two metre distancing when you’re out, from people in other households; and, of course self-isolate and get tested if you have symptoms.
These steps all still work, in breaking chains of this new variant and remain as important if not more so.
But fundamentally the most important thing – and the most difficult thing – I am asking everybody to do again is to stay at home.
Staying at home helps us control this virus. It helps us protect ourselves and each other. It helps us protect our NHS. And fundamentally, and ultimately, it helps us save lives.
And that, as we have all known all along, is really important. So my concluding message is the as it was back in March – because the situation we face now is as serious as the one we faced back in March.
So, please – Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives.
Businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors are to receive a one-off grant worth up to £9,000, the Chancellor has announced.
Chancellor announces one-off top up grants for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses worth up to £9,000 per property to help businesses through to the Spring
£594 million discretionary fund also made available to support other impacted businesses
comes in addition to £1.1 billion further discretionary grant funding for Local Authorities, Local Restriction Support Grants worth up to £3,000 a month and extension of furlough scheme
This follows the Prime Minister’s announcement last night that these business will be closed until at least February half-term in order to help control the virus, and, together with the wide range of existing support, provides them with certainty through the Spring period.
The cash is provided on a per-property basis to support businesses through the latest restrictions, and is expected to benefit over 600,000 business properties, worth £4 billion in total across all nations of the UK.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “The new strain of the virus presents us all with a huge challenge – and whilst the vaccine is being rolled out, we have needed to tighten restrictions further.
“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.”
A further £594 million is also being made available for Local Authorities and the Devolved Administrations to support other businesses not eligible for the grants, that might be affected by the restrictions. Businesses should apply to their Local Authorities.
The new one-off grants come in addition to billions of existing business support, including grants worth up to £3,000 for closed businesses, and up to £2,100 per month for impacted businesses once they reopen.
The government has also provided 100% business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, £1.1 billion existing discretionary funding for Local Authorities, the furlough scheme now extended to April and 100% government backed loans, extended until March.
Further information
the one-off top-ups will be granted to closed businesses as follows:
£4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under
£6,000 for businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
£9,000 for businesses with a rateable value of over £51,000
business support is a devolved policy and therefore the responsibility of the devolved administrations, which will receive additional funding as a result of these announcements in the usual manner:
the Scottish Government will receive £375 million
the Welsh Government will receive £227 million
the Northern Ireland Executive will receive £127 million
this will contribute to the funding which has already been guaranteed by the UK Government, to continue to provide the devolved administrations the certainty they need to plan for their COVID-19 response in the months ahead
small businesses in the devolved administrations should also be able to benefit from other UK-wide measures in the government’s unprecedented package of support for business, including the various business lending schemes (where the repayment terms were made easier as part of the Winter Economy Plan), and the extension of the Self Employment Income Support Scheme
The first venues for the mass COVID-19 vaccination programme in Lothian have been selected. NHS Lothian has identified and agreed three large-scale venues capable of providing thousands of vaccinations at a time.
The next phase, known as Wave 2, of the vaccination programme is under way across Scotland to vaccinate people aged 75 to 79 years of age, followed by those aged 70 -74 and 65 – 69, followed by adults with risk factors over the age of 60.
NHS Lothian has been working with councils, health and social care partnerships and other partners to ensure the sites are ready when the roll-out begins, which is expected in February.
The Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), The Pyramids Business Park (PBP) in West Lothian have been agreed and details are being finalised for Queen Margaret University (QMU) in East Lothian.
A number of local supplementary centres are also being set up by the four Health and Social Care Partnerships – East Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian and West Lothian – to supplement the bigger venues.
Announcing the choice of centres on Christmas Eve,David Small, Director of Primary Care Transformation, NHS Lothian, who is leading the programme, said he was delighted that three large-scale venues had been agreed.
“This is the biggest mass vaccination programme undertaken. It is a massive task and even though all of the teams are working at speed, we know we need to make sure we get the delivery right, first time.
“There are a lot of challenges involved across the project, but we are meeting each one and we are delighted that these three venues are finalised. We still have a number of other options to consider and explore, but this is a milestone.
“It means we can begin work in the new year while we continue planning the smaller centres which will supplement the bigger venues.”
Plans are being developed to create a walk-through centre at the EICC which would be capable of vaccinating 26,000 people in a week at a total of around 50 stations.
A similar walk-through centre is expected to be set up in PBP, which could provide 12,000 vaccinations every week using around 25 stations.
A drive-through vaccination centre is then being planned for Queen Margaret University in East Lothian that would have around 16 stations and be able to vaccinate 8,000 people a week.
People will be contacted by the NHS when they are eligible for a vaccination appointment. They should not contact the venues directly because they would not hold any of the relevant information.
This new phase will be followed in the Spring by the roll-out of Wave 3, which will again target individual age groups, staring with those aged 60-64, 55- 59, 50-54, followed by the rest of the population.
Around 11am yesterday (Monday, 4 January), police recovered the body of a man from water at a quarry near West Granton Road.
Although formal identification is still to take place, officers believe it to be Lukasz Machalski (above) who had been missing from his home in Restalrig since Sunday, 13 December, 2020 and his family has been informed.
Enquiries are ongoing and a full report will be forwarded to the Procurator Fiscal.
Scotland woke up to tougher restrictions this morning
The STUC has strongly welcomed the extension of blended learning in schools and extra lockdown requirements but is disappointed at failure to protect all non-essential workers.
STUC position on shielding workers has now been heeded
STUC calling on all employers to offer furlough to all working parents affected by school closures, who are not classed as keyworkers
Measures are short of a full lockdown as many non-essential workplaces in sectors like manufacturing and construction will still remain open
STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said: “By the government’s own admission the situation is now more serious than it has been at any other point, we are literally in a race to save lives, yet the measures set out are still less stringent than the lockdown last year.
“We welcome the decision to move to blended learning in schools until at least February. It is absolutely vital in the period ahead that education workers are listened to, and that a precautionary approach is maintained. Further changes to the plan for staggered return to universities also seems to be inevitable.
“We are also pleased our position has been heeded that shielding workers should not be required to attend work.
“However, we are deeply disappointed that, despite the severe circumstances, the First Minister, appears to be prepared to allow a range of non-essential workplaces such as construction and manufacturing to remain open.
“As well as posing increased transmission risks. this is a recipe for confusion and will place many workers in an invidious position, particularly those who have caring responsibilities. We intend to raise this as a matter of urgency with the Government.”
Responding to the latest announcements, David Lonsdale, Director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “We recognise the situation with the pandemic is fast moving and are behind the government’s efforts to get on top of the virus.
“Nonetheless these further restrictions are unsettling and come at an incredibly difficult time for the retail industry. Non-food retail as a whole has been thwacked hard by the onslaught of coronavirus, and even before the latest lockdown came into effect was trading almost a quarter down compared to the same period last year.
“Even when stores are eventually permitted to re-emerge from this enforced hibernation, it is likely many will continue to suffer from lower shopper footfall. Prior to the current lockdown footfall was down by a third.
“Whilst a return to trading is crucial, it will not be a panacea for the industry. That’s why we hope to see a recovery plan from government to get retail moving once again, including visibility on the route out of lockdown, early clarity over continued rates relief for the coming financial year, and short term stimulus to boost consumer confidence and spending once shops can re-open perhaps through a high street voucher scheme.”
Police Scotland issued the following statement:
Responding to the First Minister’s announcement of a new lockdown, Director for CAMRA Scotland Joe Crawford said: “Tighter restrictions under the new national lockdown means that the light at the end of the tunnel still seems months away for Scotland’s beleaguered pubs and breweries.
“With pubs having missed out on any money through the tills over Christmas – which would have been their busiest time of year – and no prospect of re-opening on the immediate horizon, it is clear that the existing financial support on offer won’t be enough to save our pubs and breweries from permanent closure.
“The Scottish Government must recognise that local pubs are a force for good, bringing communities together and playing a key role in tackling loneliness and social isolation.
“They deserve a new, long-term, sector-specific financial support plan to make sure that they can survive the next few weeks and months and are still around to open their doors again once restrictions start to be lifted.”
The EIS has expressed its support for the decision to keep schools on a remote learning platform for at least the month of January, as part of the lockdown announced the Scottish Government.
Commenting on the decision, EIS General Secretary, Larry Flanagan said: “There was already heightened concern from teachers in Level 4 areas around school safety and the surge in infection levels, driven by the new variant, will have compounded those concerns especially as it seems clear that children can be as easily infected as anyone by the new strain, with subsequent transmission also occurring.
“Given that social distancing amongst pupils is physically impossible in crowded classrooms, moving to remote learning is the correct decision, therefore, if we are to successfully drive down community infection levels. Suppressing the virus is key to school buildings safely reopening.”
He added, “Whilst the education system is better prepared to deliver education remotely than during the first lockdown, challenges remain and we need to ensure that all pupils, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, can access learning on an equitable basis.”
Mr Flanagan concluded: “We have raised with the Scottish Government the question of prioritising vaccination of school staff as a mechanism to allow school buildings to reopen for all pupils.”
City council Environment Convener Cllr Lesley Macinnes comments on work to grit roads, footpaths and cycleways in the Capital as icy conditions continue:
She reported yesterday: “Like many other areas of Scotland, our staff have been working tirelessly and as quickly as possible to tackle the ice which set in after showers of freezing rain overnight.
“We gritted all priority routes last night (Sunday) which includes routes to hospitals, bus routes and other areas that most need it. We did this again today and we are gritting category two and three routes now that the easing in conditions has allowed us to do this.
“We have thousands of roads and footpaths/cycleways in Edinburgh and it also hasn’t helped that due to very low temperatures grit on footpaths and cycleways will take longer to be ground into ice than on roads so as low temperatures continue please take extra care if you need to be out and about.
“Our staff will continue to work round the clock to grit as much as we can while this cold snap continues. My thanks too to all the residents who’ve been out gritting local neighbourhood streets – we’re filling grit bins up again as quickly as we can and we’re deploying additional resource from other services to help us to do this over the course of the coming week.”
