Business groups have slammed the government for its round of new Covid guidelines, saying businesses and customers were left with “mixed messages and patchwork demands” ahead of the planned easing of restrictions on July 19.
As part of plans to ease restrictions next week, ministers said wearing a face mask indoors will move from a legal requirement to a matter of personal choice.
From Monday, all legal limits on the number of indoor and outdoor meetings will be removed and all businesses will reopen, including nightclubs – for the first time since March 2020.
However, the advice created confusion, with some members of the government continuing to advise the public to use face coverings in certain settings, such as on public transport and in crowded spaces.
Major companies and transport agencies have said they will continue to impose masks despite the change in rules.
Transport for London, Heathrow Airport and several large restaurant and pub chains – including chain owner Gaucho and City Pub Group – have said they will continue to ask customers to cover their noses and mouths .
The Waterstones bookstore chain also said it would ask shoppers to wear masks.
However, there is uncertainty as to how the rules will be implemented in many UK supermarkets.
Sainsbury’s has confirmed that many customers of the Covid measures will remain in place in their stores after July 19.
From Monday, new tannoy signs and messages in Sainsbury’s stores will encourage customers to continue to wear a face covering, and staff will be encouraged to wear a face covering, unless they are behind a screen.
Barriers between self-service checkouts and the queue division will be phased out from its stores in England, but will remain in place between colleagues and customers when they are served at checkouts.
Other supermarkets have said they are awaiting further guidance or are still reviewing their mask policy with days before the rules change.
Roger Barker, director of policy at the Institute of Directors, accused the government of announcing a “series of mixed messages and patchwork demands” that he said had dampened corporate enthusiasm for the unlock.
The Association of Convenience Stores warned that “the tensions in government messages will play out not in the halls of government departments but in trains and buses and in the aisles of shops.”
Hannah Essex, co-executive director of the British Chambers of Commerce, complained that companies had “only five days to make this judgment and communicate it effectively to staff and customers”.
Asked on Sky News if the government has created confusion for businesses, Minister Robert Jenrick said: “I don’t agree with this. We have published guidelines and these reflect the great diversity of companies.
“There may be situations where companies can choose to pursue these policies based on their best judgment… this is the kind of discretion they want.”
“You can already see that TfL, which runs the Tube in London, has come, in my opinion, to a perfectly sane judgment that within the confines of the Tube you should use a mask.
“And there are also supermarkets that come to this conclusion as well. Waterstones, who I believe will ask their clients to wear masks… it seems a logical move.
“We trust businesses just as we trust the public to take sane and reasonable positions.”
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Source: www.independent.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-07-15 08:36:39
