Our Scotland editor, Severin Carrell, reports from Holyrood:
Scottish office workers will be allowed to return to their desks from Monday after Nicola Sturgeon lifted strict guidance urging non-essential staff to work from home.
The first minister asked employers to begin a phased return to work by introducing hybrid working next week after a continuing decline in Omicron variant cases in Scotland, in an update to MSPs at Holyrood.
Sturgeon also announced an easing of face mask rules from Friday. People not wearing face coverings, such as church ministers, will be able to stand one metre away from other people rather than 2m.
School pupils must still wear face coverings in class, however, despite calls from the Conservatives and others for that regulation to be lifted. Sturgeon said cases numbers in under-15 year olds had grown 41% in Scotland since the return of schools, despite significant reductions in all other age groups.
Sturgeon has faced significant pressure from businesses and opposition parties to lift Scotland’s stricter Covid measures, which heavily hit spending in shops, bars and restaurants over the Christmas and Hogmanay holidays.
Sturgeon insisted the tougher rules were proportionate and had helped suppress the Omicron wave far more effectively than in England.
“We would not expect to see a wholesale return to the office next week – indeed, given that the level of infection, though falling, remains high, a mass return at this stage is likely to set progress back,” Sturgeon said.
“But we know there are many benefits to both employees and employers, and to the economy as a whole, in at least a partial return to the office at this stage.”
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, said Sturgeon was still unnecessarily controlling what people could do. “While some people will still want to work from home, why doesn’t the first minister leave that decision up to employers and workers?” he asked.
In the week to 21 January, 704 people were admitted to hospital with Covid, compared to 1,026 in the previous week. The number of Covid-positive people in intensive care had fallen to 49 from a total of 59 people last Tuesday.
