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Covid 19 update
richardscamans • Jun 16, 2020
From UK hospitality
Political Update
* The Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps gave the latest No 10 Press
Conference and gave the daily datasets [1] on UK COVID-19 tests and
cases as well as providing an update on the test, track, trace system
which is seen as instrumental to easing the lockdown
* The main focus of the briefing was on the new rules taking effect
from Monday 15 June requiring face coverings to be worn on public
transport. Transport operators will be able to refuse permission to
travel where someone isn’t wearing a face covering and fines can be
issued for refusal to comply.
* DfT has created the Jet Zero Council, formed of environmental groups
and aviation sector, will be charged with making net zero emissions
possible for future flights.
* During the Q+A the Sun asked about Air Bridges, which countries were
under discussion and what progress would be made. Shapps said that the
term “travel corridor” is more accurate and that they are actively
working on travel corridors. The next review of quarantine rules is 29
June so there won’t be any announcements on changes to the rules until
then. When asked what he would like to see replace the quarantine rules,
Shapps said that travel corridors with countries with lower infection
are a potential way forward, along with testing at ports and airports.
View the full briefing here [2].
Parliamentary Update
* The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Hospitality and Tourism’s
report Pathways to Recovery [3] published. The Group took evidence from
a wide range of stakeholders examining the effects of COVID and the
measures needed to support the sector. The report was researched and
written by UK Hospitality and includes a number of short, medium and
long term interventions including a VAT cut, fiscal stimulus, marketing
and business support.
Employment Update - Flexible Furlough
* The Treasury has published new detailed guidance [4] on the changes
to CJRS being introduced from 1 July and in particular the calculation
of normal salary for flexible furlough.
* To be eligible for part time or flexible furlough an employee must
have completed at least one full 3 week cycle of furlough prior to 30
June. They do not need to be on furlough at the point they move to
flexible furlough and may have returned to work already part time
* The Guidance also confirms that parents returning from maternity,
paternity, parental or adoption leave may be put on to flexible furlough
even if they had not completed a full 3 week cycle by 30 June providing
their leave started before 10 June and their employer has previously
made a furlough claim.
* The number of employees you can claim for in any period from 1 July
cannot exceed the maximum number of employees you claimed for under any
claim ending 30 June.
* You must make a final claim up to and including 30 June – claims
prior to this date can be any length but claims after 1 July must start
and end within the same calendar month and must last at least 7 days.
You should match your claim period to the dates you process payroll and
can only make one claim for any period, so must include all full and
flexible furloughed employees in one claim even if you pay them at
different times. You cannot claim for periods in July before 1 July so
separate claims for June and July must be made even if employees are
furloughed continuously and are different from the pay period used.
* When claiming for flexible furlough employees, you should not claim
until you are sure of the exact number of hours they will have worked
during the claim period.
* There are two different calculations to work out the flexible
furlough payment to be made if your employee has a variable hours or
zero hours contract or variable pay. This is based on an assessment of
their ‘usual hours’ worked - either the average number of hours
worked in the tax year 2019/20 or the corresponding calendar period in
the previous year, whichever is highest. When calculating usual hours
you should include annual leave and overtime (if the pay for this was
not discretionary)
* If using average number of hours worked per tax year method you start
with number of hours worked, divided by the number of calendar days
employed up until the start of furlough and multiply by the number of
calendar days in the pay period
* If you are using the corresponding calendar period you identify the
relevant pay period that corresponds to at least one calendar day in the
pay period you are claiming for, take the number of hours worked in that
pay period or pay periods and divide by the total calendar days in the
pay period
Government Update
* Brexit: Following a meeting with the Withdrawal Joint Committee, the
UK has formally notified the EU that it will neither accept or seek any
extension to the Transition Period from 31 December 2020. Given the
coronavirus crisis, however, full customs checks and controls will not
be imposed from 1 January 2021. Instead there will be a staged
introduction:
* From January 2021: Traders importing goods will need to keep records
and have up to 6 months to complete customs declarations. While tariffs
will need to be paid on all imports, payments can be deferred until the
customs declaration has been made. There will be checks on controlled
goods like alcohol and tobacco. Businesses will also need to consider
how they account for VAT on imported goods.
* From April 2021: All products of animal origin (POAO) – for example
meat, pet food, honey, milk or egg products – and all regulated plants
and plant products will also require pre-notification and the relevant
health documentation.
* From July 2021: Importers and exporters will have to make
declarations at the point of importation and pay relevant tariffs. Full
Safety and Security declarations will be required, and there will be an
increase in SPS checks at GB Border Control Posts.
* A new £50m support package will boost capacity of customs brokers
and freight handlers and new border facilities will be built. Full
details of the announcement here [5].
* ONS has published a new COVID report providing an analysis of monthly
growth for the production, services and construction industries [6] in
the UK economy between March 2020 and April 2020, highlighting the early
impact from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It shows that food and
beverage service dropped 88.5% and accommodation 86.7% with hospitality
accounting for a third of the GDP fall.
* HMRC has published updated guidance to business on the treatment of
employee expenses, particularly travel and subsistence for employees
travelling to temporary workplaces [7] and where employees have taken
office equipment home to work [8] on.
* The Government has launched the North of Tyne growth Fund for tourism
and leisure [9] businesses planning an expansion project in Newcastle,
North Tyneside and Northumberland with costs of at least £134,000. The
fund will pay a capital grant of between £40,000 and £200,000 to cover
up to 30% of eligible expenditure provided that the project generates
increased employment in the area.
* Ahead of opening non-essential retail shops on Monday the Government
has launched the High Street TaskForce [10] which will use £50 million
of England European Regional Development Fund money to provide training,
information and to local councils and all organisations involved with
high streets such as BIDs. UKHospitality is involved in this work
Consumer Update
* Visit Britain has published The latest results of the UK Covid-19
Consumer Tracker Report [11], based on fieldwork from 1-5 June. There is
a more negative outlook with a perception of when ‘normality’ will
return being marginally down - just 29% expecting ‘normality’ by
September and 52% by December - and the proportion of those feeling the
‘worst is still to come’ has increased significantly. This
highlights how fragile consumer confidence is and the work to be done by
Government to rebuild it. The main reasons driving this relative lack of
confidence are again led by restrictions on travel by government (52%),
fewer opportunities to eat or drink out (51%) and concerns about
catching Covid-19 (45%).
* Sentiment towards travel appears to be slightly improving e.g. in
terms of likelihood to take a holiday, higher confidence in trips going
ahead and marginally higher confidence in doing various leisure
activities. 28% consider themselves fairly or very confident they would
be able to take a holiday or short-break during the peak July-Sept
period this year but 41% expect to be taking fewer domestic short-breaks
and holidays compared to last year
* In terms of region to be visited between now and September, South
West still leads (19%) followed by Scotland (12%) and countryside and
seaside town destinations lead with 31% and 30% shares respectively.
Cities move into second place for trips from October
* As restrictions lift, outdoor areas and activities look set to
attract higher than usual levels of visitors than normal, while
predominantly indoor activities/venues are likely to face a lengthier
period of subdued demand.
Health Update
* Local authorities across England have been allocated a share of
£300 million [12] to support the new Test and Trace service. The
funding will help local communities develop and action plans to reduce
the spread of coronavirus in their area.
* The Government has made available local calculations of the R-rate
[13] of infection across England, with most regions between 0.8-1, with
East of England lowest at 0.7-0.9 and South West at 0.8-1.1. SAGE has
confirmed the R rate remains unchanged at 0.7-0.9 for UK overall.
* Results from the ONS infection survey published 12 June estimate the
number of people testing posting has fallen from 152,000 between 27
April and 10 May to 33,000 between 25 May and 7 June. This suggests
around 1 in 1,700 have had the virus in the community.
* Over 6.4m tests have now been carried out in the UK, 292,950 tested
positive. The numbers testing positive are steadily falling on a 7 day
rolling average despite increased testing
* 535 people were admitted to hospital with coronavirus, down from 722
a week earlier, and a peak of 3,432 on 1 April. There are now 5,607
people in hospital with the virus, down 20% from 7,036 a week ago and
down from a peak of 20,697 on 12 April.
* Across all settings, the total number of deaths now stands at 41,481.
When measured by a 7-day rolling average, the daily number of deaths
currently stands at 174, down from a peak of 943 on 14 April.
* To see the number of cases of COVID-19 in England and the UK visit
the UK COVID-19 dashboard - https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
* To see the number of cases globally see the World Health Organisation
dashboard - https://covid19.who.int/
Links:
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[1]
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/slides-and-datasets-to-accompany-coronavirus-press-conference-12-june-2020
[2] https://www.youtube.com/user/Number10gov/videos
[3] https://bit.ly/PathwaystoRecovery
[4]
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme
[5]
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-accelerates-border-planning-for-the-end-of-the-transition-period
[6]
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/articles/coronavirusandtheimpactonoutputintheukeconomy/april2020
[7]
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-treat-certain-expenses-and-benefits-provided-to-employees-during-coronavirus-covid-19
[8]
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-which-expenses-are-taxable-if-your-employee-works-from-home-due-to-coronavirus-covid-19
[9]
https://www.gov.uk/business-finance-support/north-of-tyne-growth-fund
[10] https://www.highstreetstaskforce.org.uk/
[11] https://www.visitbritain.org/covid-19-consumer-sentiment-tracker
[12]
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/local-authorities-across-england-receive-funding-to-support-new-test-and-trace-service
[13] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-r-number-in-the-uk
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