SCOTLAND may need more borrowing powers to continue the job retention scheme if a further lockdown is required north of the Border, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The First Minister said she hoped the Chancellor would be "flexible" with his approach to the furlough scheme if there was a new spike in coronavirus cases.
At the daily coronavirus briefing on Monday, she was asked if Scotland's "hands were tied" when it came to employment support.
While public health is a devolved matter, the UK Government is responsible for the coronavirus job retention scheme, which has been used to support 8.5 million jobs around the UK.
The First Minister said: "I think most people would think it's unacceptable that - to use your language, because it's not my language - that Scotland's hands were tied when it came to fighting a pandemic and taking whatever action was required to be taken to suppress the virus.
"We don't know what will happen with the spread of this virus.
"We have to have the ability to respond to any increases in transmission, whether that is nationally or locally."
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The First Minister said discussions were ongoing with the Treasury on this matter. In the hypothetical event Scotland needed a further lockdown, she said, the Chancellor could be "flexible" in his approach to retaining the scheme around the UK.
She said: "If he didn't want to extend the financial support to allow that to happen then the alternative is to transfer the power to the Scottish Government to borrow more so that we can do that ourselves."
The First Minister added: "The basic fundamental point here, and I think people across the political spectrum and with no interest in politics whatsoever could understand, is that we cannot find ourselves, being in a position for financial or economic reasons where we're unable to take action necessary to suppress a potentially deadly virus.
"So we'll continue to have constructive discussions to make sure that we end up in a sensible position on these kinds of matters."
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