In a blog post yesterday (9 July), the Scottish Government announced the easing of restrictions on who can attend funeral services from 15 July 2020.
The First Minister Nicola Surgeon has today (10 July) provided further information, including a maximum cap of 20 on funeral service attendance, with physical distancing.
Please note that this applies only to funeral services – other gatherings, such as wakes, are still subject to the rules which apply to all other indoor and outdoor gatherings.
What does this mean?
The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 will be amended to remove all legislative restrictions on funeral service attendance. This means that funeral services are no longer limited to just ‘close family’.
To assist those organising a funeral service, we now advise that no more than 20 people should attend a funeral service in person. This will apply to both indoor and outdoor funeral services. This is to help prevent and mitigate any potential spread of the virus amongst different households and the wider community.
Those attending funeral services will continue to be subject to physical distancing measures, including staying 2 metres apart from other household groups. Therefore, depending on a venue’s capacity, this may mean that the total number of people able to attend a funeral service will be less than 20 people. Individual organisations, such as crematoriums, burial grounds or places of worship, are best placed to make a judgement about the extent to which they can safely accommodate funeral services in line with these restrictions.