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Police Scotland break up more than 300 parties on first weekend of Sturgeon's indoor gathering ban

Police patrolling Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street on Friday night - James Chapelard
Police patrolling Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street on Friday night - James Chapelard

Police Scotland responded to "at least" 300 house parties on the first weekend of Nicola Sturgeon's nationwide ban on indoor visits to other households, it was disclosed yesterday.

Officers issued at least 101 fixed penalty notices, made 14 arrests and forced entry on three occasions while responding to complaints of parties and gatherings taking place.

The disclosure prompted Nicola Sturgeon to plead with Scots to follow coronavirus restrictions, while her Justice Secretary said he was "astounded" at the flouting of the rules.

Police analysis suggested that only around one in 10 house parties have been linked to students, with illegal gatherings being held across the country “in every community and age group”.

Official figures also showed a surge in hospital admissions with the number of patients more than doubling in the past fortnight. Scotland saw a single-day record of 714 cases last week.

Ms Sturgeon announced a further 222 Covid-19 cases over the previous 24 hours, but emphasised this was likely to be under-reported due to a "weekend effect".

She last week introduced a nationwide ban on indoor visits to other households and 10pm for all bars and restaurants to limit the spread of Covid-19.

Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said there could be “no excuse” for arranging, attending, or hosting a house party, which was now “against the law”.

He said: “Where officers encounter blatant, willful, or persistent breaches, we will take decisive action to enforce the law.”

Police have the power to enter properties and break up house parties with more than 15 people present. Anyone breaking the rules faces a fixed penalty of £60, which can increase to £960 for repeat offenders.

While the “vast majority” of people were clearly respecting the new rules, she said even relatively small indoor gatherings could become “super spreader” events.

Ms Sturgeon added: “Anybody who is flagrantly breaching very clear rules against house parties should really take a look at themselves, because we know house parties are one of the risk factors that cause.

“House ‘gatherings’ perhaps is a better description because I think when you say house ‘party’ people think of events with dozens of people there – this could be a smaller number of people with different households mixing.”

She said the figures had to be "seen in the context" of Scotland's 5.4 million population and "house gatherings" were a better description for the events than parties as they involved guests that "span the age spectrum".

Humza Yousaf, the Scottish Justice Secretary, tweeted: "We know the vast majority of people - including students - are complying with the rules but I am astounded at the minority of ppl that are wilfully breaking the rules and having house parties despite knowing the danger they are putting themselves & others in. Reckless."

There were 122 people in Scottish hospitals with the virus yesterday, up by 17 on the previous day. This total included 16 in intensive care, up by four.

But less than a fortnight previously, on September 15, only 48 people were in hospital of which six were in intensive care.

Ms Sturgeon warned that the sharp increase in admissions should dispel any complacency about the deadly nature of the virus.