England Lockdown rules to end on July 19

The Prime minister yesterday confirmed that England will be moving to the final stage of easing of Covid restrictions on July 19, meaning almost all legal restrictions on social contact will be removed.

Proposed guidelines commencing on July 19 are as follows:

  • Cautious guidance for individuals, businesses and the vulnerable whilst prevalence is high including:
    • Whilst Government is no longer instructing people to work from home if they can, Government would expect and recommend a gradual return over the summer
    • Government expects and recommends that people wear face coverings in crowded areas such as public transport;
    • Minimising the number, proximity and duration of social contacts.
  • Testing when you have symptoms and targeted asymptomatic testing in education, high risk workplaces and to help people manage their personal risk.
  • Isolating when positive or when contacted by NHS Test and Trace.
  • Border quarantine: for all arriving from red list countries and for those people not fully vaccinated arriving from amber list countries.

More information can be located on the Government website linked below:

England moves to final step of roadmap from July 19 – UK GOV (www.gov.uk)

Outside of England:

Scotland

Nicola Sturgeon today confirmed that from 19 July, all parts of Scotland not currently there, will move to level zero.

Yet this would occur with certain slight modifications which are as followed:

  • In indoor public places where there isn’t already a 1m rule in place, the physical distance requirement will reduce from 2m to 1m and will apply between different household groups.
  • A gradual return to the office has been postponed until after 9 August at least.
  • Face masks will be required “for some time to come”.
  • Outdoors, a limit on the size of outdoor group gatherings will be kept at 15.

Sturgeon also stated how she hoped that it was still possible for most legal restrictions to end on 9 August in Scotland.

See more information regarding Scottish Guidelines and today’s announcement here

Wales

  • In recent developments, announcements out of Cardiff indicate that ministers have confirmed face covers will still be required in certain settings such as:
    • Public transport and taxis
    • Health and social care
  • Next week, ministers will hold the regular 21-day review of the coronavirus regulations – publishing how Wales will move beyond alert level one to a new alert level zero, with fewer legal restrictions.

See more information regarding welsh guidelines here

Northern Ireland

  • Belfast has set an indicative date of the July 26 to be the date in which it will remove social distancing outdoors.
    • This indicative date is subject to a review on July 22

See more information regarding Northern Irish Guidelines here

This is an ongoing matter and any further developments will be relayed in due course