Test & Protect: new guidance on collecting customer and visitor contact details
Added: 22 Apr 2021
The Scottish Government released updated guidance yesterday for the collection of Customer and Visitor Contact details.
The key points that members should note are:
- It is not mandatory for visitor attractions to take contact details for all visitors, but it is advised. The official guidance states: ‘Collecting contact details is voluntary, but it is important that both premises and individuals cooperate, as it is crucial to national efforts to suppress the virus’. Members should be cognisant of this and, where possible, look to continue to support the national efforts to suppress the virus.
- It is mandatory however to collect details from anyone using hospitality settings in your attraction. In practice, this means if your attraction has a café or restaurant, you must either collect contact details from everyone upon entry into your attraction, or from everyone upon entry into your café/restaurant.
- In contrast to last year’s test & protect guidelines, the Scottish Government is now requesting that contact details be taken for every visitor, not just a ‘lead’ person.
- The following data is to be collected from each visitor to your café/restaurant/other hospitality setting:
- The name of each visitor
- A contact phone number for each individual
- Date of visit and arrival and, where possible, departure time.
- If a customer does not have a telephone number, premises may give people the option to provide a postal address or an email address
In terms of data collection, ASVA members will be aware that we have been promoting the Check In Scotland App in these updates since it was launched. To help attractions meet their responsibilities with the new Test & Protect rules, we would recommend the use of this app. It is however entirely up to attractions to make their own decisions about how they take visitor details and, indeed, whether they will take all visitors details, or just those using their hospitality facilities.
For info, ASVA has asked the Scottish Government for clarity on whether data needs to be collected for child visitors as it is not clear at present if there is a ‘cut-off age’ for data collection. We recognise that there could be significant challenges with requesting the data of young people and have advised the Scottish Government of this. We will provide an update on this issue via this channel as soon as we have official clarification of requirements and recommendations.
Finally, concerning booking systems, the Scottish Government is strongly advising organisations to ensure they update their booking systems so that these can collect details of all visitors. It is fully understood, however, that it is unlikely that any changes will be able to be put in place ahead of re-opening. Where tickets have been sold already, and only the details of a lead contact member have been collected, we have been assured there is no requirement to contact this group retrospectively for the details of all visitors.
For the updated guidance on Test & Protect in visitor attractions and other sectors, please click here.