Paul Coleman

Dear Members,

Following today’s announcement on 29th October by the First Minister and the Scottish Government.  The Coronavirus (COVID-19): Scotland’s Strategic Framework and the Protection Levels Framework updated in October 2020 will come into force at 0600 Monday 2nd November 2020.

It is now seven months since COVID-19 was first detected in Scotland. This new Strategic Framework sets out how the Scottish Government will work to suppress the virus and presents an honest reflection of the decisions they will need to make. This will be the first major change from the Scottish Government and will mean restrictions will be placed upon the local authorities through the different Protection Levels Framework.

The current situation has been an extremely difficult period for us all. We will continue to express our disappointment at the pace of our sports return and continue to work hard to ensure our voices are heard.  But we will continue to work closely with the Scottish Government and sportscotland to update the necessary guidance documents and continue to explore how we can safely and gradually ease the restriction on our sport. We all share a common responsibility; to ensure the safety of our boxers, coaches, officials, and their families.

The updated guidance encompassing the Protection Levels Framework will be published in coming days. Once the details of today’s announcement have been fully considered, we will ensure that the updated guidance documents are made available to our members.

 In the meantime, please continue to stay safe.

 Boxing Scotland

Dear Members,

After consultation with Each District (North, East and West) we are introducing the following guidance for clubs to follow.

Please read this guidance carefully and ensure that everyone in your club is aware of what is expected of them.

BSL-COVID-19-OVERVIEW-GUIDANCE-v-10.0

Any club which does not adhere to the most recent guidelines published by Boxing Scotland may face the following sanctions:

• The club in question may have their BSL membership suspended for a period of one week;
• For a second infringement the suspension will be for 3 weeks;
• For a third infringement the clubs BSL membership will be revoked. This means that they will cease to be a member of Boxing Scotland for the remainder of the season;

THIS APPLIES TO THE FOLLOWING
• Boxing Scotland affiliated clubs;
• Clubs seeking to re-affiliate;
• Clubs who are yet to or have started the affiliation process;

It is your responsibility as a club to ensure that you are aware of the current guidelines and that they are followed. To make this easier for clubs we have introduced the Covid Co-ordinator role. If your club has not already done so please ensure you have made Boxing Scotland aware of who is in this position for your club as they will be the club contact who receives COVID guidance updates.

If, after reading the most recent guidelines and checking with your Covid Co-ordinator you are still unsure if you are following the guidelines, please contact your Regional Development Officer for further guidance.

Regards,

Boxing Scotland

 

Dear Members

After the announcement by the FM yesterday, we would like to reassure the membership that the only change to the previously issued guidance was the extension of the restrictions that are currently in force for the five Health board areas below.  For ease, we have also listed the Local Authorities which lie within these areas.  If your club falls into one of these Local Authority areas this guidance should be followed.  Yesterday’s announcement by the First Minister will now mean these restrictions will be extended until 0600 Monday 2nd November 2020.  

NHS Health Board	Local Authority
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	City of Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire (part), South Lanarkshire (part)
Lanarkshire	North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire
Ayrshire & Arran	East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire
Lothian	City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian
Forth Valley	Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, Stirling

We would like to assure the membership that we will continue to work and liaise closely with the Scottish Government and sportscotland to update necessary guidance documents.  We will ensure that they are tailored towards these restrictions. 

BSL-COVID-19-OVERVIEW-GUIDANCE-v-10.0-Final

In the meantime, please continue to stay safe and best regards

Boxing Scotland

Dear Members

After today’s announcement by the First Minister that added restrictions will come into force across Scotland from Friday.  

We would like to assure the membership that we will continue to work and liaise closely with the Scottish Government and sportscotland to update necessary guidance documents.  We will ensure that they are tailored towards these restrictions, which will be published in the coming days. Once the details of today’s announcement have been fully considered, we will ensure that the updated guidance documents are made available to our members.

In the meantime, please continue to stay safe and best regards

Boxing Scotland

Dear Members,

We would like to bring you an update on the upcoming National Novice Championships scheduled for 17^th & 18^th and 24^th & 25^th October 2020. 

After a detailed consultation with various partners including the Boxing Scotland Medical Commission and the management at Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility we have taken the decision to reschedule and move the National Novice Championships to 30^th & 31^st January and 6^th & 7^th February 2021.

Notwithstanding the increasing rate of COVID-19 transmission and in line with the Scottish Government indicative date of 5^th October for a “return to indoor contact sport”. As the governing body, we have a responsibility to ensure the health and wellbeing of all of our members and volunteers and believe rescheduling these championships now is appropriate.

As a result of rescheduling the Novice Championships, we will be unable to hold the National Intermediate Championships this season. 

Whilst we appreciate that this is not an ideal situation please be assured that we are as ever, working as hard as we can to ensure that as a sport we are not disadvantaged in our return to competition and have been encouraged by the support received from clubs with regards to maintaining hygiene standards and following published guidelines with feedback from RDOs being that most clubs are going above and beyond what is expected. 

As we move closer to the new National Novice Championships date of 30^th & 31^st January and 6^th & 7^th February 2021 we will issue further guidance on sanitary provisions required by all attending the event. Whereby we anticipate that competing boxers will be required to use their own bandages, head guards and gloves (head guards and gloves must be AIBA licensed equipment).

Once again, we thank you for your continued understanding and support.

Best regards

Boxing Scotland

Dear Members,

We would like to take the opportunity to thank the membership for your continued support and patience with our phased return to Boxing during this unprecedented period. While we welcome today’s announcement in relation to the phased return of sport, we recognise the very real difficulties the sector is currently facing and the impact this pandemic is continuing to have on participation, employment, finances and facilities.  We will continue to engage with all partners to ensure that the concerns of the sector are heard and understood.

Recent figures serve as a timely reminder that the virus has not gone away and we are still dealing with a public emergency.  Although it has taken time to get our sport back into gyms all be it in a limited role at present, we are in a privileged position compared to other sectors that we are still operating and able to operate as a sport.

We would like to praise our clubs and membership during this unprecedented period as you continue to follow the published guidelines.  It is a testament to you that our sport has remained safe since restrictions have been lifted.

We are aware of the impact this is having on the physical and mental health of individuals and finances of the Clubs.  However as we are currently seeing with an increase in cases, if we do not follow the guidelines, we could face further restrictions, resulting in a greater impact and further delay to when we can provide competitive boxing again.

Across the sector, we share a desire to build on recent progress, however, the challenges presented by COVID-19 means that a cautious approach must be taken in relation to our phased return.  We continue to work with the Scottish Government and sportscotland whilst we consult our medical commission about the specific boxing-related activity with when and how we continue with our phased return.

The latest Government approved guidance for everyone’s information regarding Phase 3 can be found highlighted in red in the guidance.

As you will notice there is currently no change of the numbers conducting activity outside. 

Numbers inside remain based on physical distancing of  2m x 2m training zones. Again, no change from previous guidance.

COVID-19-OVERVIEW-GUIDANCE-v-8.0

It is noted that significant emphasis is being placed on the Test and Protect system.  Especially with the introduction of the Protect Scotland App.  Which we strongly encourage all individuals to sign up to.

Protect Scotland app is available at protect.scot App

Again we thank you for your cooperation and patience as we move forward with our sport. 

Boxing Scotland