Information on the new national restrictions, including what they mean for working from home and business closures, and why they are being introduced.

COVID-19 case numbers are rising rapidly across the whole of the UK and in other countries. We must act now to control the spread of the virus. The single most important action we can all take to fight coronavirus is to stay at home, to protect the NHS and save lives.

When we reduce our day-to-day contact with other people, we reduce the spread of the infection. That is why, from 00:01 on Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December, you must:

• Stay at home, except for specific purposes.
• Avoid meeting people you do not live with, except for specific purposes.
• Close certain businesses and venues.

On Thursday 5 November these national restrictions will replace the Local Covid Alert Level measures. The new measures will apply nationally for four weeks up to Wednesday 2 December. At the end of that period, we will return to a regional approach, based on the latest data.

These measures will be underpinned by law. Police and other authorities will have powers to give fines and break up gatherings.

Stay at home

You must not leave or be outside of your home unless where permitted by law. This may include:

Work and volunteering

You can leave home for work purposes, or to provide voluntary or charitable services, where you cannot do this from home. Read more on businesses that must close down, that will be able to operate during the second national lockdown, and what financial support is available here.

Essential activities

You can leave home to buy things at shops which are permitted to open. For instance to buy food or medicine, or to collect any items – including food or drink – ordered through click-and-collect or as a takeaway, to obtain or deposit money (e.g. from a bank or post office), or to access critical public services (see section below).

Fulfilling legal obligations

You may also leave home to fulfil legal obligations.

Moving home

You may leave home to carry out activities related to buying, selling, letting or renting a residential property.

Travel

If you live in England, you must stay at home and avoid travel in the UK or overseas, unless for work, education or other legally permitted reasons.

Education and childcare

You can leave home for education. This includes schools, universities or formal education provision.

You cannot leave home for extracurricular classes or training such as music or drama tuition.

You cannot leave home for driving lessons.

You can also leave home for registered childcare and supervised activities for children that are necessary to allow parents or carers to work, seek work, or undertake education or training.

Parents can still take their children to school, and continue existing arrangements for contact with children where they live apart.

Meeting others and care

You can leave home to exercise outdoors or visit an outdoor public place (see section 3).

You can leave home to visit people in your support bubble indoors or outdoors, including to stay overnight with them.

You can leave home to meet outdoors with one other person, who is not in your support bubble. If doing so, you can be accompanied by a child under 5 or a disabled person who requires continuous care.

You can leave home to provide informal childcare for children aged 13 and under as part of a childcare bubble.

You can also leave home to:

• provide care for vulnerable people
• provide emergency assistance
• attend a support group (of up to 15 people)
• for respite care where that care is being provided to a vulnerable person or a person with a disability, or is a short break in respect of a looked after child

Medical reasons, harm and compassionate visits

You can leave home for any medical reason, including to get a COVID-19 test, for medical appointments and emergencies, to be with someone who is giving birth, to avoid injury or illness or to escape risk of harm (such as domestic abuse), or for animal welfare reasons such as to attend veterinary services for advice or treatment.

You can also leave home to visit someone who is dying or someone in a care home (if permitted under care home guidance), hospice, or hospital, or to accompany them to a medical appointment.

Events

You can leave home to attend a place of worship for individual prayer, a funeral or a related event for someone who has died, to visit a burial ground or a remembrance garden, or to attend a deathbed wedding. A list of what constitutes a ‘reasonable excuse’ for leaving home can be found in the regulations.

Meeting others safely

In general, you must not meet with another person socially or undertake any activities with another person.

However, you can exercise or meet in a public, outdoors space with people you live with, your support bubble, your childcare bubble, or with one other person.

You should minimise time spent outside your home.

When around other people, stay 2 metres apart from anyone not in your household – meaning the people you live with – or your support bubble. Where this is not possible, stay 1 metre apart with extra precautions (e.g. wearing a face covering).

You must not meet socially indoors with family or friends unless they are part of your household or support bubble.

A support bubble is where a household with one adult joins with another household. Households in that support bubble can still visit each other, stay overnight in each other’s households, and visit outdoor public places together.

You can exercise or visit a public outdoor space:

• by yourself
• with the people you live with
• with your support bubble
• or, when on your own, 1 person from another household

Children under 5, and up to two carers for a person with a disability who needs continuous care, are not counted towards the outdoors gatherings limit.

There is further guidance on what exercise and other physical activity can continue during the period of national restrictions.

Public outdoor places include:

• neighbourhood streets, parks, beaches, and parts of the countryside that are accessible to the public
• public gardens and grounds (whether or not you pay to enter them)
• allotments
• outdoor playgrounds

You cannot meet people in a private garden, unless you live with them or have formed a support bubble with them.

Face coverings are required by law to be worn in many indoor settings, such as shops or places of worship where these remain open, and on public transport.

Where and when you can meet in larger groups

There are still circumstances in which you are allowed to meet others from outside your household or support bubble in larger groups, but this should not be for socialising and only for permitted purposes. A full list of these circumstances can be found in the regulations and includes:

• for work purposes (including in other people’s homes where necessary, such as for nannies, cleaners or tradespeople)
• for providing voluntary or charitable services
• for formal education or formal training
• to provide emergency assistance and to facilitate a house move
• to fulfil legal obligations or participate in legal proceedings
• support groups that have to be delivered in person can continue with up to 15 participants where formally organised to provide mutual aid, therapy or any other form of support – but they must take place at a premises other than a private home – ‘support group’ includes, but is not limited to, support to victims of crime, people in drug and alcohol recovery, new parents and guardians, people caring for those with long-term or terminal illnesses, or who are vulnerable, people facing issues relating to their sexuality or gender, those who have suffered bereavement, and vulnerable young people, including for them to meet youth workers
• parent and child groups can continue where they provide support to parent and/or child, and children under 5 will not be counted within the 15 person limit – meaning parents and carers can attend such groups in larger numbers.
• funerals of up to 30 people and some weddings can continue, as set out below

Where a work meeting does not need to take place in a private home or garden, it should not – for example, although you can meet a personal trainer, you should do so in an outdoor public place.

Weddings, civil partnerships, and funerals

Funerals can be attended by a maximum of 30 people. Linked funeral ceremonial events such as stone settings and ash scatterings can also continue with up to 15 people in attendance. Anyone working is not counted in the 15 or 30 person limit. Social distancing should be maintained between people who do not live together or share a support bubble.

Weddings and civil partnership ceremonies will not be permitted to take place except where one of those getting married is seriously ill and not expected to recover (‘deathbed wedding’). These weddings are limited to 6 people.

Going to work

To help contain the virus, everyone who can work effectively from home should do so. Where people cannot do so – including, but not limited to, people who work in critical national infrastructure, construction, or manufacturing – they should continue to travel to their workplace. This is essential to keeping the country operating and supporting sectors and employers.

Public sector employees working in essential services, including childcare or education, should continue to go into work.

Where it is necessary for you to work in other people’s homes – for example, for nannies, cleaners or tradespeople – you can do so. Otherwise, you should avoid meeting for work in a private home or garden, where COVID-19 Secure measures may not be in place.

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.

Education, school, college and university

Schools, colleges and universities remain open.

The Government is continuing to prioritise the wellbeing and long-term futures of our young people and will not be closing core educational facilities, like early years settings, schools, colleges, universities and vocational training centres. It remains very important for children and young people to attend, to support their wellbeing and education and help working parents and guardians. Senior clinicians still advise that school is the best place for children to be, and so they should continue to go to school. Schools have implemented a range of protective measures to make them safe. For those who are home-schooled, pupils can still access education and training in community settings where needed to receive a suitable full-time education.

Schools and colleges should be continuing to offer before and after school or college activities/clubs for their pupils, in order to enable parents to work, seek work, or to undertake education or training, and for the purposes of respite care (i.e. for vulnerable children). This includes activities/clubs related to PE/sport, music, dance and drama. See DfE guidance on education and childcare settings.

The Government have been clear that exams will go ahead next summer, as they are the fairest and most accurate way to measure a pupil’s attainment. We therefore need to keep schools and colleges open so that children are able to keep progressing towards exams and the next stage of education or employment. Students now have more time to prepare for their exams next year, as most AS, A levels and GCSEs will be held 3 weeks later to help address the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Universities have welcomed back students and we have published guidance advising universities on reopening to ensure they have safety measures in place to minimise the spread of the virus. Universities and adult education settings should consider moving to increased levels of online learning where possible.

If you live at university, you should not move back and forward between your permanent home and student home during term time. You should only return home at the end of term. We will publish further guidance soon on how students can travel home safely at the end of term.

Childcare and children’s activities

There are several ways that parents and carers can continue to access childcare during the national restrictions:

• early years settings and childminders remain open, and you can continue to use these settings as normal
• you can access other childcare activities (including wraparound care) where reasonably necessary to enable parents to work, seek work, attend education or training
• nannies will be able to continue to provide services, including in the home
• parents are able to form a childcare bubble with one other household for the purposes of informal childcare, where the child is 13 or under
• some households will also be able to benefit from being in a support bubble, which allows single adult households to join another household

Some youth services are able to continue, such as 1-1 youth work and support groups, but most youth clubs and groups will need to close for this period.

Protecting people more at risk from coronavirus

If you are over 60 or clinically vulnerable, you could be at higher risk of severe illness from coronavirus. You:

• should be especially careful to follow the rules and minimise your contacts with others
• should continue to wash your hands carefully and more frequently than usual and maintain thorough cleaning of frequently touched areas in your home and/or workspace

Clinically vulnerable people are those who are:

• aged 70 or over (regardless of medical conditions)
• under 70 with an underlying health condition listed below (that is, anyone instructed to get a flu jab each year on medical grounds):
  • chronic (long-term) mild to moderate respiratory diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema or bronchitis
  • chronic heart disease, such as heart failure
  • chronic kidney disease
  • chronic liver disease, such as hepatitis
  • chronic neurological conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis (MS) or cerebral palsy
  • diabetes
  • problems with the spleen
  • a weakened immune system as the result of certain conditions or medicines they are taking (such as steroid tablets)
  • being seriously overweight (a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or above)
• pregnant

There is a further group of people who are defined, also on medical grounds, as clinically extremely vulnerable to coronavirus – that is, people with specific serious health conditions. Over this period, we are advising the clinically extremely vulnerable to work from home. If you cannot work from home, you are advised not to go to work and may be eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), Employment Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit. We are advising clinically extremely vulnerable people to stay at home as much as possible, except to go outdoors for exercise or to attend essential health appointments. You may wish to meet up with one other person from outside your household or support bubble, for example, to exercise in an outdoor public place, but we suggest that you always try to do so as safely as possible. The full guidance is available and the Government has written to everybody who is clinically extremely vulnerable to set out detailed advice while the new restrictions are in place.

Visiting relatives in care homes

Detailed guidance on care home visits during the period of national restrictions has been published.

Moving home

You can still move home. People outside your household or support bubble should not help with moving house unless absolutely necessary.

Estate and letting agents and removals firms can continue to work and people looking to move home can continue to undertake viewings.

Follow the national guidance on moving home safely, which includes advice on social distancing and wearing a face covering.

Participating in the democratic process

If you are entitled to vote in an election or other democratic process in another country you are permitted to leave home if necessary to vote. Those organising the voting may provide alternatives to voting in person for people who want or need it, such as giving you the option of voting by proxy or post. Over the period of National Restrictions this applies to those entitled to vote in the Moldovan and Georgian elections.

Image: A Covid-19 social distancing sign in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK, in June 2020 / @ MIB

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