The Prime Minister has stated that “it’s the right time to update the Government’s message in England from stay at home to stay alert”. The Government intends a phased return to our normal way of life which is conditional on scientific advice regarding the Coronavirus. Parts of the plan set out by the Prime Minister yesterday (10 May 2020) included that:
- The Government is actively encouraging people who can’t work from home to go back to work if they can from today (Monday 11 May 2020). This will be particularly relevant to those who are in the construction and manufacturing industries. However, those workers should avoid using public transport. They should ideally drive, walk or cycle to work instead. This may mean that you need to consider temporary changes to working hours and you should perhaps discuss with staff how they intend to get to work. If your staff are able to work from home, they should continue to do so.
- From 1 June 2020 those shops that closed as they were not deemed to provide essential products will be allowed to reopen.
- By July at the very earliest some parts of the hospitality industry will reopen along with some public places provided they are thought to be safe.
- There will be some kind of quarantine for everyone arriving into the UK by air but there’s no date on that as yet. This will have an additional effect on business travel which is already severely impacted by the travel bans imposed by many countries across the world.
- Following the May half term, there will be a phased reopening of primary schools in England initially Reception, Year 1 and Year 6. As yet, no plan has been set out as to how this will work. However, this may mean that some parents are able to resume working if they have previously been unable to due to having to home-school their children.
It is expected that the Government will provide more details of their plans later today (11 May 2020) and in the coming days.