People could be allowed to socialise with up to 10 of their closest family and friends if lockdown rules are lifted.

Ministers are mulling over plans to relax strict ‘stay at home’ advice to ease loneliness and isolation.

This could mean allowing small groups to ‘cluster’ together. People would nominate a list of those they want to be able to see, drawn from no more than one or two households, Mail Online reports.

Those involved would then be able to meet for meals and other social activities, but neither group would be allowed to mingle with others outside the ‘cluster’.

The new rules would allow couples who live apart to see each other and people who live alone to spend time with their loved ones.

However, enforcing the system poses huge challenges and risks a second wave of infections taking hold.

A Whitehall source said: ‘If we can find a way to allow a bit more flexibility without risking transmission of the disease running higher then we will do it.’

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Belgium and Scotland are looking at the idea as pressure piles on governments across Europe to come up with a lockdown exit strategy.

On Thursday, Nicola Sturgeon hinted what might be in store for the UK as she published the Scottish government’s plans for returning back to nomal.

Downing Street has said it wants the four home nations to broadly follow the same plan when it comes to lifting lockdown, although ministers have refused to speculate when this could be or what it will look like.

Ms Sturgeon has discussed a scheme in which people could meet a small ‘bubble’ of others outside their own households. She said some countries are beginning to look at expanding the definition of ‘households’ to allow small gatherings of people, which could be a way forward for Scotland.

The First Minister said it would have to be the same group of people each time for it to work.

But she stressed no decisions have been made on such a ‘bubble’ arrangement and that she was just trying to start an open and transparent conversation with the public about how to move on from lockdown.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has previously said lockdown won’t be lifted until the UK passes five tests, including a significant and daily drop in new cases and deaths.

Repeating his stance yesterday, he said he understood the ‘economic pressures’ the lockdown was causing, but warned they would be even worse if the UK suffered a second peak of the epidemic.

He told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme: ‘I understand those voices who are saying we should move sooner but that is not something we are going to do.’

Mr Hancock said the lockdown could not be eased until ministers have the preliminary results of an Office for National Statistics study looking at how widespread the disease is in society. 

Downing Street said it was ‘conceivable’ this could be ready ahead of the May 7 review of the lockdown.

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