Finally, after months of what felt like endless lockdowns, restaurants and pubs have opened for business. However, resuming to life before lockdown is still a long way off. In December, before pubs where shut, customers would have to order a meal in order to be able to buy an alcoholic drink and there was also the daily curfew of 10pm. However, these are no longer in place, customers are free to order alcoholic drinks and there is no curfew put in place as pubs will shut at their usual closing times.
New guidelines have been put in place, these include; customers having to order only whilst seated at a table outdoors (the pub garden), the rule of six must be reinforced or be a group of any size with only two households, every customer over the age of 16 will have to check into NHS track and trace or give personal details to pub staff and when customers are not seated at a table, they should wear a mask and continue to social distance as much as possible. The pub staff must make sure that customers stay seated whilst eating and drinking and can only visit the bathroom if they are wearing a face mask or covering.
Pubs, cafes and restaurants have had to put multiple rules in place in order to prevent the spread of the virus, each establishment should; ask customers to use contactless credit cards to prevents the spread of germs, have each employee wear a mask or face covering and remind customers to wear them if they are not eating or drinking, use markings around the area to give guidance of the distance between people and provide disposable sauce sachets to prevent unnecessary germs being spread. Many pubs include television screens where people have a drink while watching the football and these pubs are told that they are able to show the football, but only if the television screens can be used outside as long as customers are not very loud and stay seated.
All restrictions are hoping to be lifted after 21st June in England.
In comparison, Scotland have just recently allowed restaurants, bars and cafés are now able to serve alcohol outdoors, for groups of up to 6 people from multiple households and the opening hours are going to be determined by local licensing laws. However, the pubs, cafes and restaurants in Scotland are open indoors without alcohol until 8pm which is very different to England’s approach of reopening businesses.
Alcohol is now allowed to be sold indoors under any circumstances and they can only serve groups of up to 6 people from two different households. Food that has been ordered can also be collected indoors which wasn’t an option last week.
Social distancing must continue to be maintained in both England and Scotland and venues are ordered to collect contact details for all customers. After May 17th, Scotland will be in level 2 which suggests that restaurants, bars and cafés will have the ability to stay open until 10:30pm, allow 6 people from three households to meet indoors and allow 8 adults from eight households to meet outdoors. By 7th June, Scotland is expecting to enter level 1.
In terms of Wales, they have officially reopened restaurants, bars and cafés, but this is only outdoors as they are hoping to move indoors after the 17th of May.
Finally, in Northern Ireland, they are expecting to open restaurants, bars and cafes outdoors from 30th of April. Customers will only be able to order an alcoholic drink f they have also ordered a substantial meal.
Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has implied that customers may be asked to provide evidence of them having the vaccine in order to enter restaurants, bars and cafés, however the date of this requirement has not yet been stated.