Scots told to observe eight-person cap for Christmas bubbles under harsher festive rules

Scots have been told that family get-togethers over Christmas should be limited to eight people, as Nicola Sturgeon unveiled harsher rules for the festive season than the rest of the UK.

In guidance issued by the Scottish Government, those taking advantage of five days of relaxed rules were also told to observe two-metre distancing wherever possible while only one ‘extended household’ will be allowed as part of a three household “bubble” next month.

Ms Sturgeon was accused of confusing the public by signing up to a four-nations plan, only to then issue tighter guidance than other UK nations and urge people not to take advantage of the more relaxed rules which she has agreed to put in place.

In England, there is no advisory limit on the number of people that should be part of festive bubbles over five days of relaxed restrictions, between December 23 and 27, which allow families to meet indoors. Nor is there a limit on the number of existing household bubbles that can be counted as one household for the purposes of the Christmas cap.

While UK Government rules advise that families meeting up indoors should keep socially distanced from others “wherever possible”, it does not specify that a two-metre rule should be observed, as is the case north of the border.

Meanwhile, the Scottish guidance also urges people meeting up indoors to “avoid sharing cutlery or crockery if possible”. The UK Government is silent on the issue of Christmas tableware. Scottish guidance also urges the public to "consider a Christmas walk with family, rather than a meal indoors".

Partick Harvie, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said that experts had said Christmas relaxation of rules could lead to a third wave of the virus and January lockdowns.

He said: “Within a day of announcing the looser rules, the First Minister is appealing to the public not to use them. It’s a confusing message."

Mr Harvie also raised concern that no specific risk assessment or modelling had been carried out to assess the impact of the changes, an omission he condemned as “deeply irresponsible” with experts warning that the changes risk causing unnecessary deaths.

The rules issued by the Scottish Government confirm that children under 12 will not count towards the eight person limit, and primary school children would not be expected to remain physically distanced from others.

However, Ms Sturgeon signalled a partial climbdown over travel to the islands, a day after she appeared to rule out any special treatment for those who will have to travel over water to get to their families. Those travelling to Northern Ireland have been given two extra days, either side of the five-day window.

Ms Sturgeon was told that in many cases it was harder to get to Scottish islands than it was to Northern Ireland, and that her stance risked creating crowding on flights and ferries.

Said she would look at issuing updated guidance to take account of “exceptional circumstances”.

Speaking to Holyrood’s Covid-19 Committee on Thursday, Jason Leitch, the Scottish Government’s National Clinical Director, admitted that some members of the public would simply ignore the rules with opinion split over a Christmas relaxation.

He said: “Our polling suggests it's evenly split [between people who want more freedom over Christmas and those who do not] which probably suggests we've got it about right.

"Some want more freedom, some want less freedom, and some are going to ignore whatever we do. I think we should provide guidance as best we can, and then the population can choose carefully what they do according to their circumstances."

Speaking at Holyrood, Ms Sturgeon said she had "agonised over" the decision to allow families to meet but argued the Scottish Government was right to ease the restrictions on gatherings "instead of just allowing that to happen naturally in a haphazard way".

She added: “The default advice and position is that, if people can get through this Christmas without interacting physically, particularly indoors, with members of other households, they should do so.”