What you can and can’t do under latest lockdown rule
Fines for visiting a garden – although not if it’s a pub garden! wades through the new Covid legislation
What is this new legislation, where does it apply and when does it start?
The new law, which was due to be published on Friday July 31 but only materialised on Tuesday afternoon (August 4), is designed to allow police to enforce new partial lockdown restrictions in Rochdale, as well as in all Greater Manchester boroughs, as a result of rising Covid infection rates.
It follows the announcement of fresh guidance by the Department of Health and Social Care for the city region - and some other parts of the north on Thursday night, for the same reason.
Tuesday’s legislation applies to all ten boroughs, but Rochdale could be exempted at any time, as the legislation states that the health secretary can issue a directive to remove any borough from the rules if he sees fit.
It came into force at midnight on Wednesday August 5 and will be reviewed by August 19 at the latest, but could be reviewed before that.
●●WHAT does it mean for visiting friends and family?
LEGALLY, residents can now only go into another person’s house or garden if very specific circumstances apply.
It applies not only to going into the other person’s house itself, but also their garden, yard, ‘passage, stair, outhouse’ or any other part of its premises.
However if you are in a ‘support bubble’ with another household referred to in the legislation as ‘linked’ households - you will still be able to mix.
This cannot be any two households. One of them has to be a single-adult household or a single parent household.
There are also other more specific exemptions.
●●WHAT other exceptions are in place?
IF you are attending a woman giving birth, at her request, you are allowed into her house.
Similarly, if you believe a friend or family member is dying, you would be exempt.
Anyone ‘fulfilling a legal obligation’ is too although the legislation doesn’t give an example of that.
Equally, you can mix for ‘reasonably necessary’ purposes for work, to provide voluntary or charity services, to provide education or training, or as a registered childcare provider. That would suggest that tradespeople such as decorators are an exception too.
Emergency workers are also exempt.
You can also go into someone’s house in order to ‘avoid injury or illness or to escape a risk of harm’, which suggests anyone fleeing domestic violence may have some legal protection.
Anyone helping with a house move is exempt too, as well as anyone providing care or assistance to a vulnerable person.
Vulnerable people are defined as pregnant women, people over 70 and people under 70 who have an underlying health condition that puts them particularly at risk from Covid.
Finally, you can go inside another person’s house to continue existing parental access arrangements, if the child isn’t living with one or more of their parents.
●●WHAT does this mean for childcare?
THE legislation provides for paid childcare arrangements - so you can still have a childminder in your house.
If you rely on informal childcare arrangements, things are a bit trickier.
Under the legislation, there is no mention of any exceptions for this.
So, by default, you can only legally have someone round to look after your kids - unless they’re a childminder - if they are linked up with you in the ‘support bubble’ mentioned above.
●●WHAT does it say about pubs and restaurants?
BASICALLY, nothing.
Last week’s new guidance - the rules
●●A sign advising people to stay two metres apart on a lamppost as tougher lockdown measures are reintroduced across the North West announced suddenly by the Department of Health and Social Care on Thursday night - said households should not now mix inside a pub in the borough, or anywhere else in Greater Manchester.
Clarification released on Friday afternoon then stated that they can mix outside a pub or restaurant (so in a beer garden or at an outside table), in groups of no more than six, unless the group is made up of no more than two households.
However no restrictions on meeting inside or outside the pub - or in a restaurant - appear in the legislation.
So while we are still being advised not to meet friends in the local, it isn’t illegal.
●●WHAT does it say about meeting up in the park? THE legislation says no more than 30 people at a time must meet up in outdoor public spaces. That includes parks, national parks and public roads.
The law exempts business premises and spaces run by charities or as visitor attractions from the 30-people rule.
Outdoor gatherings of more than 30 people can also be held by companies, charities, public bodies and political parties so long as they have carried out a risk assessment.
Professional sportspeople and their coaches are also exempt for training or competition purposes, as are gatherings of more than 30 where it is ‘reasonably necessary’ for work, voluntary or charity purposes, for education or training, professional childminding, for emergency assistance or ‘to fulfil a legal obligation’.
Anything resembling an indoor rave - in other words anything already legally classed as a rave if it happened outside - of over 30 people or more is banned.
●●CAN I go on holiday?
IT would appear so.
You can’t go and stay in someone else’s house, whether that is in Rochdale, another Greater Manchester borough or outside the city region unless they’re in your support bubble.
But you can go and stay in a hotel, bed and breakfast, caravan site or ‘members club’, all of which are explicitly exempted from the rules about households mixing indoors.
●●HOW much can I be fined?
THE legislation says anyone found to be breaking the new law can be hit with a £100 fixed penalty notice by the police.
If you’re caught a second time, that rises to £200, £400 the third time, £800 the fourth time, £1,600 the fifth time and £3,200 the sixth time. It also allows the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute.
How strictly will this be enforced?
Greater Manchester Police have yet to comment on the new legislation, so it is too soon to say.
●●HOW will I know when the law changes again?
THE legislation says it will be reviewed at least every fortnight, which means by August 19.
However Matt Hancock, the Chief Medical Officer and other government officials - as well as Rochdale Borough Council and Greater Manchester leaders - are reviewing the local infection rates on at least a weekly basis, with further updates usually due on a Thursday.
Additionally the legislation also allows for the health secretary to issue a direction removing any local authority from the current restrictions.
How any change would be announced is not clear.
In addition to the region-wide instructions which have now entered into law, Rochdalians are also being asked to continue complying with additional measures introduced by the council on Friday, July 17 to prevent a local lockdown.
The advisory rules, which saw residents asked to wear face coverings in public a week before it become compulsory nationwide, as well as to maintain two metres of social distancing and refrain from contact with others such as shaking hands, will be reviewed by the council on Friday August 14.