UK Hospitality update

 

Political Update

Today’s Downing Street press briefing was led by the Health Secretary and focused on the launch of the NHS Test, Track & Trace programme for England from Thursday

The aim of the programme is to move from lock down for all to more targeted measures and help to prevent 5-15% of infections. It means that even if there is a second spike a second national lockdown is highly likely to be avoided and replaced instead with individual isolation and local action.

As is currently the case, anyone who develops COVID systems will have to isolate for 7 days and their household for 14. From Thursday, everyone with symptoms must now ask for a test online or call 119. If the test comes back negative, everyone in the household can return to normality but if the test comes back positive, a team of 25,000 contact tracers will track down people who have been near someone infected with COVID and ask them to self isolate for up to 14 days whether they are sick or not.

The process for booking a test is now digitised and individuals can self refer and book direct or employers request a company portal to book tests for their employees by emailing portalservicedesk@dhsc.gov.uk

Eventually the government hopes a free NHS smartphone app will work in tandem with manual tracing. If a user develops COVID symptoms, the app will inform the NHS and this may trigger an anonymous alert to other users they have been close to asking them to go into isolation. This system picks up casual encounters with strangers whereas manual tracing relies on identifying known contacts.

NI already has its own contact tracing. Scotland will also start its own system on Thursday and Wales will commence early June

Those who are isolating will be eligible for statutory sick pay

 

Government Updates

Boris Johnson has appeared before the House of Commons Liaison Committee discussing the Government’s handling of the COVID crisis. The Committee comprises the Chairs of all the Select Committees and meets 3 times a year. You can watch the live session here

In giving evidence, the Prime Minister committed to ask SAGE to review if the 2m social distancing could be reduced to 1m and for the results to be published before 15 June. He also committed to reducing when the time and conditions permit.

He also said that, while it was difficult to bring forward hospitality restart in a way which involves social distancing he was confident that the Government would be able to move forward more quickly than he had previously thought and committed to going as fast as he could to support the sector.

Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme now live: employers with fewer than 250 employees can now claim for up to two weeks of COVIDSSP. Forms are now open for employers to check whether they are eligible and file a claim online.

 

Devolved Administrations Update

The Scottish Economic Secretary, Fiona Hyslop has announced changes to rates and business support. Unfortunately this does not include extending hospitality grants to businesses with a rateable value above £51k but will allow multi site businesses to access the grant if their premises have a cumulative value above £51k and to businesses which share premises space and where the landlord is the ratepayer. We await details to understand potential benefit

The Communities Secretary, Robert Jenrick and the Mayor of London will jointly chair a London Transition Board to co-ordinate London’s response as it emerges from lockdown and safely reopens the economy.

A Welsh language version of the UK Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy has been published.

 

Global Updates

A summary of border restrictions for travelling to France and to the UK has been updated.

The European Commission has put forward a proposal for a €750 billion recovery plan. It includes suggestions that Schengen countries coordinate future cross border travel with their neighbours and further common travel areas, of the type seen in Nordics are expected

Austria has confirmed plans to regularly test staff at accommodation providers with investment covered by the state. Events with up to 100 participants will be allowed as early as 29 May, with larger events following gradually this summer.

Portugal and Spain announced plans to welcome international visitors without quarantine requirements, although Portugal will hold health checks on arrival. Portugal plans to open ‘higher risk’ areas such as cinemas and concert halls very soon.

Ireland announced the formation of a special Tourism Recovery Taskforce.

Switzerland has launched a “Clean and Safe” label for reassurance messaging across 6 different areas of the sector.

 

Situation update 27 May 2020

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/

Brazil now has the highest daily death toll related to COVID-19 in the world and the second highest number of reported COVID-19 infections, after the US.