Nicola Sturgeon has said she is not prepared to put lives at risk “in some kind of reckless race with other parts of the UK”, as she faced criticism for maintaining the 2-metre rule for businesses despite having announced plans for school pupils to return from August with no distancing in place. Scotland’s first minister set out indicative dates for further easing of the country’s lockdown rules – including lifting the five-mile travel restriction from next Friday and reopening beer gardens from the following Monday – as weekly data from the National Records of Scotland showed a reduction in deaths for the eighth consecutive week. Continuing to urge caution, she told the Scottish parliament: “Our pace is slightly slower than England but it is, in my view, right for our circumstances and, I hope, more likely to be sustainable than if we went faster now.” The Scottish Conservative party leader, Jackson Carlaw, called on Sturgeon to act more quickly on the 2-metre question – which she has asked the Scottish government’s scientific advisory group to report on by 2 July – after a survey by the Scottish Tourism Alliance found a majority of businesses felt the current distancing rules made reopening impossible. Criticising the “go-slow approach”, Carlaw highlighted the practical implications of lifting the five-mile travel limit, noting that from 3 July Scots will be allowed to go on holiday to England but not in their own country, where the tourism sector is not due to reopen until 15 July. Sturgeon responded: “I am not prepared to [put lives at risk] in some kind of reckless race with other parts of the UK.” She added: “Our careful approach has brought us to where we are now.” She said while it was not “fair or justified to criticise other leaders taking very difficult decisions”, she had still not seen the evidence that underpinned Boris Johnson’s announcement on Tuesday of a relaxing of the 2-metre rule for England. “The worst thing I could do right now, and I understand the pressures that businesses are under, is to take decisions that I thought were hasty, not properly based on evidence, that risked a second wave or further outbreaks of this virus,” she said. On Wednesday afternoon the head of Scotland’s largest teaching union said his members were “anxious, frustrated and angry” after the Scottish government announced a sudden policy shift from a blended model of at-home and in-school learning to the full-time return of pupils from August with no distancing. The move followed a significant backlash from concerned parents facing indefinite home-schooling. Larry Flanagan, the general secretary of the EIS, described it as a “political announcement”, saying he was “not convinced that no physical distancing between pupils is safe, and we are absolutely certain that physical distancing between pupils and teachers remains essential”. Accepting that by August the amount of distance required may have been reduced, he said: “There cannot be a social distancing rule for outside of schools and a different one for inside classrooms.” Indicative dates for further Scottish lockdown easing 3 July Five-mile travel limit for leisure lifted; self-catering holiday accommodation can reopen. Sturgeon asked visitors “to be sensitive to rural and island communities”. 6 July Outdoor hospitality such as beer gardens can reopen. 10 July People can meet in extended groups outdoors, and households can meet indoors with up to a maximum of two households, both with physical distancing. 13 July Organised outdoor contact sports can resume for children and young people; non-essential shops inside shopping centres can reopen. 15 July All childcare providers can open subject to individual provider arrangements, along with all holiday accommodation; pubs and restaurants can reopen indoors; hairdressers and barbers can reopen with enhanced hygiene measures; and museums, galleries, cinemas, monuments and libraries can reopen with distancing and other measures.