COVID-19: LATEST RESTRICTIONS:ENGLAND

They'e arrived. The latest restrictions which came into force at 12.01am today were published around 15 minutes ealier. You'll find them in SI 2020/986 - The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (No. 2) (England) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2020.If that's too much of a strain, below is a governnment summary of the changes (as slightly amended by me). Better than listening to me for four hours - or even more than six! Regulation 5 of the Original Regulations is amended to provide for: • The prohibition of a gathering of more than six people unless they are from the same household or two households where they are linked households* - unless a valid exemption applies. For a definition of linked households, you will need to take a look at the regulations. * The exemptions to the gatherings limit are (Regulation 5(3)): o For an elite sportsperson, their coach (or where the elite sportsperson is a child, their parent) and the gathering is necessary for a competition or training; o Where the gathering is reasonably necessary for work purposes; for the provision of voluntary or charitable services; for education or training; to provide childcare or to supervise activities for children; to provide emergency assistance; to enable the avoidance of injury or escape from the risk of harm; to provide care to or assistance to a vulnerable person; to facilitate access to and contact between parents and children where they do not live in the same household; o To fulfil a legal obligation; o Where the gathering is a support group; o For gatherings of up to 30 persons for marriage or civil partnership; o For gatherings for a significant event * Additionally, regulation 1(4ZA) is inserted into the Original Regulations to provide that the gatherings restrictions in private dwellings contained in the Regional Lockdown Regulations remain in place. This affects: the Public Health (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Leicester) (No. 2) Regulations 2020; the Public Health (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Blackburn with Darwen and Bradford) Regulations 2020; the Public Health (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (North of England) Regulations 2020; and the Public Health (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Bolton) Regulations 2020 (together “the Restrictions”). * The police and local authorities will continue to monitor compliance with the Original Regulations, including the amendments set out in this instrument.