Months of campaigning by the hospitality industry has paid off with the Scottish Government finally giving new guidance allowing background music to be played in hospitality venues from Saturday.
Music was banned on 14 August and TV’s were also prohibited, but after pressure from trade groups and the establishment of an expert advisory group to look at how low level background sound might be managed in a COVID safe manner that did not interfere with speech intelligibility or cause increased vocal effort. And they managed it.
No limit has been set but , licensees are expected to take a “qualitative approach based on observation of what volume levels are safe” for their premises.
They are asked to ensure that customers do not need to significantly raise voices to communicate with other customers or staff and ensure all customers and staff maintain physical distancing requirements while communicating with each other.
Licensees need to do a dry run with volunteers – music is to be switched on and the level gradually increased – ensuring that the volunteers can still converse comfortably without raising their voices or leaning in closer to be heard. Photographs have to be taken of the level set. If music is on, TV’s should not be.
See at the full guidance here.
