Boris Johnson announces plans for re-opening of pubs outdoors

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After a quiet start to 2021, the hospitality industry will slowly begin to re-open to the public from April 12, as restaurants, pubs, cafes and bars start allowing customers to dine outdoors. However, there will still be plenty of rules and Covid-related guidelines in place to ensure everyone stays safe.

On April 5, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced stage two of the Government’s roadmap will be going ahead, but the rules will not be exactly the same as they were in 2020 when restrictions were eased.

Can you use the toilet at pubs and restaurants from April 12?

Before April 12, some restaurants and other food-serving establishments have been open for delivery and takeaway purposes only.

From larger chains such as Pret-a-Manger to small independent restaurants, all places serving takeaway food and drink before April 12 were not allowed to have customers staying on the premises or using their other facilities, such as toilets.

Understandably, this has been hugely inconvenient for a lot of people, especially in areas where public toilets are not open.

Fortunately, from April 12, customers at pubs and restaurants will be permitted to use the toilets, breast-feeding rooms or baby changing rooms.

What are the other guidelines for customers at pubs and restaurants from April 12?

The guidelines will be slightly different from those we had to follow during summer 2020, but they won’t be too hard to follow.

As we know, for stage two of the Government’s roadmap, places that serve food and drink and have the possibility to serve customers outdoors can reopen, as well as hospitality venues being able to serve takeaway booze.

Outside trading is allowed with the rule of six (groups of up to six people) or two households only.

Table service will be the standard at most venues, however, the guidance says if a hospitality venue does not serve alcohol, customers will be allowed to order and collect food and drink from a counter, but must consume it while seated.

When it comes to qualifying as an outdoor space, there are other tight restrictions.

To be considered an outdoor space, shelters, marquees and other types of coverings can still have a roof but it needs to have at least half (50 percent) of the area of the walls open at all times while in use.

Will we still need to provide details for NHS Test and Trace?

One big change is taking contact details of customers to help NHS Test and Trace.

From summer 2020 onwards, staff at venues were required to take the information of one person in a group, it is now a legal requirement that details from all pubgoers must be recorded.

The new Government guidelines state any operating businesses must firstly display the official NHS QR code poster clearly at their venues.

They are also required to ask every customer or visitor over the age of 16 to check in to the venue or provide their contact details, which can be done using the NHS Covid-19 app.

It also says pubs must have a system in place to ensure information can be collected from visitors who do not have a smartphone or don’t want to use the NHS app.

What information are they now required to take from you?

Information collected must include the customer’s name, contact telephone number or email address or postal address, date of visit, time of visit and where possible, departure time, as well as the name of the assigned staff member if a customer will interact with only one member of staff.

The guidance does note while recording arrival and departure times will help reduce the number of people to be contacted by NHS Test and Trace if required, recording departure times isn’t always practicable and this is not required by law.

The information collected must not be used for any other purpose other than for NHS Test and Trace unless operators would already collect it for another business purpose.

An example given in the guidance is operators must not collect data for NHS Test and Trace for marketing purposes and doing so could lead to penalty fines and enforcement action from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Any business found to be not complying with the requirements will be subject to financial penalties.

However, should a pub remain closed at the next stage of the roadmap unlocking and offering takeaways, they do not need to comply with these requirements.

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