England

The government has announced further national measures to address rising cases of coronavirus in England.

Face Coverings

• Customers in private hire vehicles and taxis must wear face coverings (from 23 September).
• Customers in hospitality venues must wear face coverings, except when seated at a table to eat or drink. Staff in hospitality and retail will now also be required to wear face coverings (from 24 September).
• People who are already exempt from the existing face covering obligations, such as because of an underlying health condition, will continue to be exempt from these new obligations.
• Guidance stating that face coverings and visors should be worn in close contact services will now become law (from 24 September).
• Staff working on public transport and taxi drivers will continue to be advised to wear face coverings.

Working from home

To help contain the virus, office workers who can work effectively from home should do so over the winter. Where an employer, in consultation with their employee, judges an employee can carry out their normal duties from home they should do so. Public sector employees working in essential services, including education settings, should continue to go into work where necessary. Anyone else who cannot work from home should go to their place of work. The risk of transmission can be substantially reduced if COVID-19 secure guidelines are followed closely. Extra consideration should be given to those people at higher risk.

Businesses

• Businesses selling food or drink (including cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants), social clubs, casinos, bowling alleys, amusement arcades (and other indoor leisure centres or facilities), funfairs, theme parks, adventure parks and activities, and bingo halls, must be closed between 10pm and 5am. This will include takeaways but delivery services can continue after 10pm (from 24 September).
• In licensed premises, food and drink must be ordered from, and served at, a table.
• Customers must eat and drink at a table in any premises selling food and drink to consume indoors, on site (from 24 September).
• Businesses will need to display the official NHS QR code posters so that customers can ‘check-in’ at different premises using this option as an alternative to providing their contact details once the app is rolled out nationally (from 24 September).

Businesses and organisations will face stricter rules to make their premises COVID Secure (from 28 September):

• A wider range of leisure and entertainment venues, services provided in community centres, and close contact services will be subject to the COVID-19 Secure requirements in law and fines of up to £10,000 for repeated breaches.
• Employers must not knowingly require or encourage someone who is being required to self-isolate to come to work.
• Businesses must remind people to wear face coverings where mandated.

Meeting people safely

• Support groupsmust be limited to a maximum of 15 people (from 24 September).
• Indoor organised sport for over 18s will no longer be exempt from the rule of six. There is an exemption for indoor organised team sports for disabled people (from 24 September).
• There will be a new exemption in those areas of local intervention where household mixing is not allowed to permit friends and family to provide informal childcare for children under 14 (from 24 September).
• Weddings and civil partnership ceremonies and receptions will be restricted to a maximum of 15 people (down from 30). Other significant standalone life events will be subject to the ‘rule of six’ limits, except funerals (from 28 September).

Enforcement

Government has announced an initial £60 million to support additional enforcement activity by local authorities and the police, in addition to funding that has already been awarded.

Conferences, exhibitions and large sporting events

The spread of the virus is also affecting our ability to reopen business conferences, exhibition halls and large sporting events, so we will not be able to do this from 1 October.

The government’s expectation is the measures described above will need to remain in place until March. 

Coronavirus outbreak FAQs: what you can and can't do – the online guidance has been updated following the announcements.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The above measures apply to England – but there are signs of a more collaborative approach between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with both Wales and Scotland announcing a 10pm curfew on hospitality businesses and requirements for table service only, following a UK-wide COBR meeting, chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by the First Ministers of Scotland and Northern Ireland and the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland.

Additional requirements

Scotland

Inside people’s homes (from tomorrow, Wednesday 23 Sept 2020)

• Do not meet people from any other households in your home or another person’s home socially, unless they are in your extended household
• These rules also apply to children
• Children whose parents do not live in the same household can move between homes, as can non-cohabiting couples
• Very limited exemptions apply for childcare, and for tradespeople

Private gardens or public outdoors spaces (from tomorrow, Wednesday 23 September 2020)

• A maximum of six people from two households can meet in outdoor spaces
• You should limit as far as possible the total number of households you meet in a day
• Under-12s do not count towards the maximum number of households or number of people who can meet outdoors. Under-12s do not have to physically distance
• A maximum of six 12 to 17 year olds can meet in outdoor spaces, with no household limit. Physical distancing is still required

Indoors in public spaces (from tomorrow, Wednesday September 23 2020)

• A maximum of six people from two households can meet in public indoor spaces such as cafes, pubs and restaurants
• Children under 12 from those two households do not count towards the limits

Hospitality (from 00:01 Friday 25 September 2020)

• Pubs, restaurants and all hospitality settings will be required to close at 10pm
• Table service will continue to be required in all hospitality premises

Car sharing

• You should only car share with members of your own, or extended, household, and follow guidance when there is no alternative

Working

• You must continue to work from home where practicable

Scotland’s restrictions will be reviewed within three weeks and further guidance will made available where necessary.

Wales

• Hospitality businesses will have to provide table service only from Thursday (24th Sept) and all off-licences, including supermarkets, will have to stop selling alcohol at 10pm.
• In Wales, the Welsh Government asks all those who can to work from home wherever possible. This has been in force since late March;
• Face coverings are required in all indoor public places, for both customers and staff working in those indoor public areas;
• People in Wales can only meet socially indoors with people they live with (your household) and members of an exclusive extended household (known as a bubble). Meetings or gatherings indoors are limited to six people from the same extended household, not including any children under 11.

Northern Ireland

From 6.00 pm on 22 September 2020 the following restrictions will be introduced for all households in Northern Ireland:

• no mixing of households in private dwellings, with exemptions for:
• bubbling with one other household
• caring responsibilities including childcare
• building or maintenance work, or the services of any trade or profession
• supported living arrangements
• visits required for legal or medical purposes
• a business operating from a person’s home
• a funeral
• a house move
• marriage or civil partnership ceremony in a private dwelling where one partner is terminally ill
• no more than six people to gather in a private garden from no more than two households - children aged 12 and under from those two households are not counted in this total

Guidance updates

Online guidance updated following the announcements

England

Coronavirus outbreak FAQs: what you can and can't do – the online guidance has been updated following the announcements.