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Face coverings to be compulsory in Scottish shops but questions over how rule will be enforced

A shopper wears a protective face mask in Edinburgh's Princes Street - PA
A shopper wears a protective face mask in Edinburgh's Princes Street - PA

Face coverings are to become compulsory in shops in Scotland from the end of next week, Nicola Sturgeon has announced amid questions over how the rule will be enforced.

The First Minister announced they would become mandatory from July 10, with exemptions for children under five and people with certain health conditions, after widespread flouting of her voluntary guidance to wear them.

Ms Sturgeon said the police were mandated to issue £60 fixed penalty notices to people not wearing face coverings.

However, she accepted that this may not be easy to enforce, saying officers would act "very proportionately and sensitively".

But Calum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said it was “simply impractical to expect police officers to be redeployed as pseudo store detectives across the thousands of retail outlets in Scotland”.

Despite her assurances that shop staff will not be expected to police the change, business groups expressed concern that it would create confrontation with customers who flout the rule.

A shopper wears a protective face mask in Edinburgh's Princes Street - PA
A shopper wears a protective face mask in Edinburgh's Princes Street - PA

The Scottish Grocers Federation said it was "extremely disappointed" at the decision and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) criticised the lack of notice.

Andrew McRae, FSB Scotland's policy chair, said: "Now there’s very limited time to implement this and understandable concern about creating tensions with customers.”

Announcing the change at her daily briefing, Ms Sturgeon said face coverings - which are already mandatory on public transport - could "help reduce the risk of transmission indoors" and "provide an additional layer of protection".

She said: "We have proceeded for a period with a voluntary approach to this. Some people are complying and some are not, I'm not pointing fingers or trying to blame people for that.

"And we've been having a discussion with more sectors like retail about reducing distancing, and that increases the importance of mitigations like face coverings."

David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: "Leaving enforcement to the authorities should hopefully remove any potential risk of new frictions or flashpoints with customers."