situation continues to take its toll on everyone but it continues to take a toll on businesses and last week i confirmed the allocation of more than 200 million of the £375 million in business support we are making available and today i can confirm the allocation of a further £55 million, up to £28 million will be allocated to taxi and private hire drivers, £19 million will support services like beauticians and hairdressers, 5 million will be provided for sport and an additional £3 million for tourism. local authorities are working to get to money to bank accounts as quickly as possible. in light of the widespread community transmission of omicron in the uk, discussions are taking place today between the four nations about possible changes to travel rules including the requirement for predeparture testing and if these discussions result in changes we
information do you need to take the steps on self isolation that we ve been calling for for weeks? today in glasgow, taxi and private hire drivers protested. they said they d been excluded from a scheme to help businesses impacted by covid rules. every restriction has - a knock on effect for workers and businesses, particularly in hospitality and retail. - so can i repeat calls for the uk government to work with devolved governments to support workers at - this time of crisis? many are literally i fighting for survival. hogmanay is usually a big celebration here in scotland, but this new year s eve, the advice is to reduce contacts as much as possible and not to travel to england to attend a nightclub or to avoid scotland s more stringent coronavirus restrictions. the first minister acknowledged it had been another difficult year, but said she believed that 2022 would be better. alexandra mackenzie, bbc news.