There seems to be a lot of confusion and varied interpretation of the rules about staying at home in our current Lockdown in England. So here is a brief summary:
When you can leave home
You must not leave or be outside of your home except where you have a ‘reasonable excuse’. This is the law. The police can take action against you if you leave home without a ‘reasonable excuse’, and issue you with a fine (Fixed Penalty Notice). You can be given a Fixed Penalty Notice of £200 for the first offence, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400.
A ‘reasonable excuse’ includes:
Work
You can only leave home for work purposes where it is unreasonable for you to do your job from home. This includes, but is not limited to, people who work within critical national infrastructure, construction or manufacturing that require in-person attendance.
Volunteering
You can also leave home to provide voluntary or charitable services.
Essential activities
You can leave home to buy things at shops or obtain services. You may also leave your home to do these things on behalf of a disabled or vulnerable person or someone self-isolating.
Education and childcare
You can only leave home for education, registered childcare, and supervised activities for children where the child is eligible to attend. Access to education and children’s activities for school-aged pupils is restricted. You can continue existing arrangements for contact between parents and children where they live apart. If you live in a household with anyone aged under 14, you can also form a childcare bubble.
Meeting others and care
You can leave home:
to visit people in your support bubble ( if you are legally permitted to form one)
to provide informal childcare for children under 14 as part of a childcare bubble (for example, to enable parents to work, not to enable social contact between adults)
to provide care for disabled or vulnerable people
to provide emergency assistance
to 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.
Exercise
You can continue to exercise alone, with one other person or with your household or support bubble. This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area. You should maintain social distancing. See exercising.
Medical reasons
You can leave home for a medical reason, including to get a COVID-19 test, for medical appointments and for emergencies.
Maternity
You can leave home to be with someone who is giving birth or, accessing other maternity services, or to be with a baby receiving neonatal critical care. There is NHS guidance on pregnancy and coronavirus.
Harm
You may leave home, to avoid injury or illness or to escape risk of harm (such as domestic abuse).
Compassionate visits
You may 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.
Animal welfare reasons
You can leave home for animal welfare reasons, such as to attend veterinary services for advice or treatment.
Communal worship and life events
You can leave home to attend or visit a place of worship for communal worship, to attend a funeral or event related to a death, to visit a burial ground or a remembrance garden, or to attend a wedding ceremony. You should follow the guidance on the safe use of places of worship and must not mingle with anyone outside of your household or support bubble. Weddings, funerals and religious, belief-based or commemorative events linked to someone’s death are all subject to limits on the numbers that can attend.
Further reasonable excuses
There are further reasonable excuses. For example, you may leave home to fulfil legal obligations, or to carry out activities related to buying, selling, letting or renting a residential property, for the purpose of picketing, or where it is reasonably necessary for voting in an election or referendum.
Meeting other people
It is against the law to meet socially with family or friends unless they are part of your household or support bubble. You cannot leave home for recreational or leisure purposes (such as for a picnic or a social meeting).
Exercising
You should minimise time spent outside your home, but you can leave your home to exercise. This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.
You can exercise in a public outdoor place:
by yourself
with the people you live with
with your support bubble (if you are legally permitted to form one)
in a childcare bubble where providing childcare
or, when on your own, with 1 person from another household
This includes but is not limited to running, cycling, walking, and swimming.
Public outdoor places include:
parks, beaches, countryside accessible to the public, forests
public gardens (whether or not you pay to enter them)
the grounds of a heritage site
playgrounds
Outdoor sports venues must close, for example:
tennis courts
golf courses
swimming pools
Children under 5, and up to 2 carers for a person with a disability who needs continuous care, are not counted towards the gatherings limits for exercising outside.
If you (or a person in your care) have a health condition that routinely requires you to leave home to maintain your health – including if that involves travel beyond your local area or exercising several times a day – then you can do so.
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 (like wearing a face covering).
Face coverings
You must wear a face covering in many indoor settings, such as shops or places of worship where these remain open, and on public transport, unless you are exempt. This is the law. Read guidance on face coverings.
Support and childcare bubbles
You have to meet certain eligibility rules to form a support or childcare bubble. This means not everyone will be able to form a bubble.
A support bubble is a support network which links two households. You can form a support bubble with another household of any size only if you meet the eligibility rules.
It is against the law to form a support bubble if you do not follow these rules.
You are permitted to leave your home to visit your support bubble (and to stay overnight with them). However, if you form a support bubble, it is best if this is with a household who live locally. This will help prevent the virus spreading from an area where more people are infected.
If you live in a household with anyone aged under 14, you can form a childcare bubble. This allows friends or family from one other household to provide informal childcare.
You must not meet socially with your childcare bubble, and must avoid seeing members of your childcare and support bubbles at the same time.
There is separate guidance for support bubbles and childcare bubbles.
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, childcare or support bubble in larger groups, but this should not be for socialising and only for permitted purposes. A full list of these circumstances will be included in the regulations, and includes:
For work, or providing voluntary or charitable services, where it is unreasonable to do so from home. This can include work in other people’s homes where necessary – for example, for nannies, cleaners, social care workers providing support to children and families, or tradespeople. See guidance on working safely in other people’s homes. 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 a public outdoor place.
in a childcare bubble (for the purposes of childcare only)where eligible to use these services, for education, registered childcare, and supervised activities for children. Access to education and childcare facilities is restricted. See further information on education and childcare.
for arrangements where children do not live in the same household as both their parents or guardians
to allow contact between birth parents and children in care, as well as between siblings in care
for prospective adopting parents to meet a child or children who may be placed with them
to place or facilitate the placing of a child or children in the care of another by social services
for birth partners
to provide emergency assistance, and to avoid injury or illness, or to escape a risk of harm (including domestic abuse)
to visit someone who is dying or to visit someone receiving treatment in a hospital, hospice or care home, or to accompany a family member or friend to a medical appointment
to fulfil a legal obligation, such as attending court or jury service
for gatherings within criminal justice accommodation or immigration detention centres
to provide care or assistance to someone vulnerable, or to provide respite for a carer
for a wedding or equivalent ceremony. This should only be in exceptional circumstances and is limited to 6 people.
for funerals – up to a maximum of 30 people. Wakes and other linked ceremonial events can continue in a group of up to 6 people.
for elite sportspeople (and their coaches if necessary, or parents/guardians if they are under 18) – or those on an official elite sports pathway – to compete and train
to facilitate a house move
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.
Where a group includes someone covered by an exception (for example, someone who is working or volunteering), they are not generally counted as part of the gatherings limit. This means, for example, a tradesperson can go into a household without breaching the limit, if they are there for work, and the officiant at a wedding would not count towards the limit.
If you break the rules
The police can take action against you if you meet in larger groups. This includes breaking up illegal gatherings and issuing fines (fixed penalty notices).
You can be given a Fixed Penalty Notice of £200 for the first offence, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400. If you hold, or are involved in holding, an illegal gathering of over 30 people, the police can issue fines of £10,000.
Scientists and politicians are imploring you to stay at home and at the same time giving you many valid reasons to heave home. I would highlight a couple. You can take your dog for a walk to do a pee or poo as often as required ( animal welfare). Note that’s for a walk, not travel by car. You can only go out once a day for exercise, you must stay local. Local is not defined but from recent cases 5 miles may be too far. You must not eat or drink when out with your dog or for exercise. That may be considered a picnic.
Matt Hancock says we must enforce the rules fairly and firmly. He does not rule out tougher restrictions still and things could get a lot tougher if we do not comply. Remember these restrictions do not mean we should push the boundaries. Most people believe we have too many children at school and I suspect rules will be changed to say if one parent is a key worker and another at home then the children should not be in school. They should only go to school if both parents are key workers or are from single parent family.
Israel is one of the fastest countries to get vaccinations done. Almost 20% of all adults are immunised now including 72% of the over 60s. They are of course a much smaller country by population.
Athough there is little news tonight I apologise that this is now longer than usual as I have reproduced the guidelines for going out. Tonight’s statistics show exactly why you should not be going out unless absolutely essential. I am sure we do not need to exercise daily, for the duration. 2 or 3 times a week would not adversely affect our health .There were 619,941 tests done on 7 January, 54,940 were positive yesterday at an R rate of 614.7%
Deaths were the highest on a Sunday since May at 563 at a rate of 7.3 per 100k, a 49% rise on the 7 day rolling average.
There is no new hospital data.
It’s time to be blunt.
If you do not stay at home you may die.
If you do not stay at home others may die.
If you absolutely have to go out, stay local, be out as little as possible, wear a mask whenever out of the house in public remember hand hygiene, good ventilation and two metres apart.
Please all stay safe.
Kenneth Hines' WordOfWisdom 