The Treasury has announced a further £800 million in coronavirus funding to be shared among the devolved administrations.

It is split into £400 million for the Scottish Government, £200 million for the Welsh Government and £200 million for the Northern Ireland Executive.

The Treasury said this takes its upfront funding guarantee for the devolved administrations to at least £16.8 billion on top of money outlined in the spring Budget 2020.

This extra funding will provide the nations with the certainty they need to plan through these difficult months

It said the cash could be spent on areas such as business support or the NHS.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay said: “We’ve already committed unprecedented levels of support to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“This extra funding will provide the nations with the certainty they need to plan through these difficult months.

“We remain committed to an economic recovery for the whole of the United Kingdom and will continue to work closely with the devolved administrations to support people and businesses.”

Scottish Secretary Alistair Jack said: “The UK Government is committed to supporting people in all parts of the UK during this difficult time which is why today we have given £400 million extra to the Scottish Government for their Covid-19 response.

“This brings our total additional Covid-19 support to Scotland to £8.6 billion since spring Budget 2020.

“This is on top of direct UK Government Covid-19 support to people and businesses in Scotland, including the furlough and self-employment schemes, business loans, VAT cuts for the hardest hit sectors and investing billions in our Plan for Jobs and our welfare safety net.”