and thirdly, there is about quarter of a billion pounds of cash sitting with local authorities that s been provided by government to support those businesses. in scotland, new rules for shops and hospitality venues have come into force to deal with the rise in cases caused by the 0micron variant. people will be asked to limit socialising to three households at a time in the run up to christmas. there ll be a return to measures to cut down on crowding in shops, and businesses will be legally required to take steps to reduce the spread of covid. as coronavirus cases rise and records continue to be broken, the booster programme also reaches new highs, setting more records for daily top up doses. but with streets and bars as empty as this, one thing seems clear for businesses that depend on us going out, the coming weeks are unlikely to feel very festive. as we heard in that report, fom december the 27th,