Latest guidance from UK Government
11th September 2020
Further to the Prime Minister’s statement outlining the new rule of six in England, the official Government guidance for working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) has been updated. Additional specialised advice has also been updated, including the Visitor Economy guidance and guidance for restaurants, pubs, bars and takeaway services.
The seven priority actions are:
- Complete a COVID-19 risk assessment. Share it with all your staff. Find out how to do a risk assessment.
- Clean more often. Increase how often you clean surfaces, especially those that are being touched a lot. Ask your staff and your customers to use hand sanitiser and wash their hands frequently.
- Ask your customers to wear face coverings where required to do so by law. That is especially important if your customers are likely to be around people they do not normally meet. Some exemptions apply. Check when to wear one, exemptions, and how to make your own.
- Make sure everyone is social distancing. Make it easy for everyone to do so by putting up signs or introducing a one-way system that your customers can follow. Enable people in the same party who do not live together to remain a safe distance apart.
- Increase ventilation by keeping doors and windows open where possible and running ventilation systems at all times.
- Take part in NHS Test and Trace by keeping a record of all your customers for 21 days. From 18 September, this will be enforced in law. Some exemptions apply. Check ‘Maintaining records of staff, customers and visitors to support NHS Test and Trace’ for details.
- Turn people with coronavirus symptoms away. If a staff member (or someone in their household) or a customer has a persistent cough, a high temperature or has lost their sense of taste or smell, they should be isolating.
The additional guidance for restaurants, pub, bar or takeaway and visitor economy businesses is available on gov.uk.
Other updates to note include:
Meeting others safely during coronavirus (COVID-19)
This new guidance provides details on social distancing, seeing friends and family and rules in other venues, it also outlines more details on the exemptions, including:
- Weddings, civil partnerships and funerals (up to 30 can attend)
- Education and training
- Work or voluntary/charitable services
- Some organised indoor and outdoor sports, physical activity and exercise classes
- Elite sporting competitions
- Youth groups or activities
The guidance also clarifies that COVID secure venues can continue to host people up to their social distancing capacity but that no one can visit in a group of more than 6 (except for the exemptions and where the household (including bubble) is greater than 6)
Frequently asked questions - what you can and can’t do
The frequently asked questions have also been updated to support the new guidance, some points of relevance for tourism include:
- People can still go on holiday in England, the distance travelled will not be restricted but they should not go on holiday with people outside their household (including bubble) in a group larger than 6 people
- The guidance for someone who becomes unwell on holiday has not changed.
Other recent guidance updates
New restrictions introduced in Bolton, England
On 8 September new measures were introduced to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in Bolton. The new measures, which came into force immediately on 8 September, include:
- All hospitality for food and drink will be restricted to takeaway only
- Late-night restriction of operating hours, meaning venues will be required to close between 10pm and 5am
- Socialising outside of your household will be banned and will be enforced by law, in all settings including outdoors.
Other Government updates
- Businesses in England required to close due to local lockdowns or targeted restrictions will now be able to receive grants worth up to £1,500 for every three weeks that they are closed.
- The Government has introduced a new Kickstart Scheme in Great Britain, a £2 billion fund to create 6-month work placements aimed at those aged 16 to 24. Find out if your business can apply.
- The Competition and Market Authority (CMA) has issued a statement setting out the CMA’s views on how the law operates in relation to contracts for wedding services affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
- The advice for food businesses has been updated with revised language in relation to self-isolation. The guidance encourages employers to enable workers to follow any advice to self-isolate and to support them when in isolation.
- The ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme has now closed. Restaurants and other food service businesses that have already registered can submit a claim for reimbursement until 30 September 2020.
- Whilst Greece remains part of the travel corridor scheme, the Greek Islands of Lesvos, Tinos, Serifos, Mykonos, Crete, Santorini and Zakynthos are no longer on the travel exemptions list. Passengers arriving into England from these islands will now need to self-isolate.