As we enter another National Lockdown we have attempted to bring together the relevant information for companies working in the fenestration sector. Full details can be found on the relevant government websites but we have provided a short summary and further details relating specifically to our companies below,
England – https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
Wales – https://gov.wales/covid-19-alert-levels
Scotland- https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-protection-levels
Northern Ireland – https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/coronavirus-covid-19-regulations-guidance-what-restrictions-mean-you
A selection of COVID Support Documents are available from our website
SUMMARY
In summary our understanding is that:
ENGLAND
- Manufacturing can continue and employees can attend the manufacturing site as normal but strict COVID guidance continue to be followed. Where employees can work from home they should be encouraged to do so.
- Showrooms must close but could operate a click and collect service if they provide products
- Trade Counters may continue to operate but must follow the strict COVID guidance
- Tradespeople can continue to work in peoples’ homes but must follow the strict COVID guidance
- Travel between areas is permitted for work purposes
- Overnight stays are permitted for work purposes but be aware that hotels, B&B’s etc have been instructed to close
WALES
- Manufacturing can continue and employees can attend the manufacturing site as normal but strict COVID guidance continue to be followed. Where employees can work from home they should be encouraged to do so.
- Showrooms must close but could operate a click and collect service if they provide products
- Trade Counters may continue to operate but must follow the strict COVID guidance
- Tradespeople can continue to work in peoples’ homes but must follow the strict COVID guidance
- Travel between areas is permitted for work purposes
SCOTLAND
- Manufacturing can continue and employees can attend the manufacturing site as normal but strict COVID guidance continue to be followed. Where employees can work from home they should be encouraged to do so
- Showrooms must close
- Trade Counters may continue to operate but must follow the strict COVID guidance
- Tradespeople may ONLY continue to work in peoples’ homes to carry out essential repair or maintenance that would otherwise threaten the household’s health and safety
- Travel between areas, including between Scotland and the rest of the UK, is permitted for work purposes
- Overnight stays are not permitted for work purposes. Accommodation may open for essential workers only.
NORTHERN IRELAND
- Manufacturing can continue and employees can attend the manufacturing site as normal but strict COVID guidance continue to be followed. Where employees can work from home they should be encouraged to do so.
- Showrooms must close and click and collect service may not be provided
- Trade Counters may continue to operate but must follow the strict COVID guidance
- Tradespeople can continue to work in peoples’ homes but must follow the strict COVID guidance
- Travel between areas is permitted for work purposes
- Overnight stays are permitted for work purposes
__________________________________________________________________________________
Additional Information
Note: All text in bold and italic are links to the relevant information and website.
ENGLAND
When you can leave home
You must not leave or be outside of your home except where you have a ‘reasonable excuse’. This will be put in law. The police can take action against you if you leave home without a ‘reasonable excuse’, and issue you with a fine (Fixed Penalty Notice).
You can be given a Fixed Penalty Notice of £200 for the first offence, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400.
A ‘reasonable excuse’ includes:
- Work – you can only leave home for work purposes where it is unreasonable for you to do your job from home, including but not limited to people who work within critical national infrastructure, construction or manufacturing that require in-person attendance
Where and when you can meet in larger groups
There are still circumstances in which you are allowed to meet others from outside your household, childcare or support bubble in larger groups, but this should not be for socialising and only for permitted purposes. A full list of these circumstances will be included in the regulations, and includes:
- for work where it is unreasonable to do so from home. This can include work in other people’s homes where necessary – for example, for nannies, cleaners, social care workers providing support to children and families, or tradespeople. (See guidance on working safely in other people’s homes. Where a work meeting does not need to take place in a private home or garden, it should not – for example, although you can meet a personal trainer, you should do so in a public outdoor place.
Travel
You must not leave your home unless you have a reasonable excuse (for example, for work or education purposes). If you need to travel you should stay local – meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live – and look to reduce the number of journeys you make overall. The list of reasons you can leave your home and area include, but are not limited to:
- work, where you cannot reasonably work from home
International travel
You can only travel internationally – or within the UK – where you first have a legally permitted reason to leave home. In addition, you should consider the public health advice in the country you are visiting.
If you do need to travel overseas (and are legally permitted to do so, for example, because it is for work), even if you are returning to a place you’ve visited before, you should look at the rules in place at your destination and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) travel advice.
Staying away from home overnight
You cannot leave your home or the place where you are living for holidays or overnight stays unless you have a reasonable excuse for doing so. This means that holidays in the UK and abroad are not allowed.
This includes staying in a second home or caravan, if that is not your primary residence. This also includes staying with anyone who you don’t live with unless they’re in your support bubble.
You are allowed to stay overnight away from your home if you:
- require accommodation for work purposes or to provide voluntary services
If you are already on holiday, you should return to your home as soon as practical.
Going to work
You may only leave your home for work if you cannot reasonably work from home.
Where people cannot work from home – including, but not limited to, people who work in critical national infrastructure, construction, or manufacturing – they should continue to travel to their workplace. This is essential to keeping the country operating and supporting sectors and employers.
Public sector employees working in essential services, including childcare or education, should continue to go into work.
Where it is necessary for you to work in other people’s homes – for example, for nannies, cleaners or tradespeople – you can do so. Otherwise, you should avoid meeting for work in a private home or garden, where COVID-19 Secure measures may not be in place.
Employers and employees should discuss their working arrangements, and employers should take every possible step to facilitate their employees working from home, including providing suitable IT and equipment to enable remote working.
The risk of transmission can be substantially reduced if COVID-19 secure guidelines are followed closely.
Business and venues
Businesses and venues which must close:
To reduce social contact, the regulations require some businesses to close and impose restrictions on how some businesses provide goods and services. The full list of businesses required to close can be found in the guidance on closing certain businesses and venues in England, but includes:
- non-essential retail, such as clothing and homeware stores, vehicle showrooms (other than for rental), betting shops, tailors, tobacco and vape shops, electronic goods and mobile phone shops, auction houses (except for auctions of livestock or agricultural equipment) and market stalls selling non-essential goods. These venues can continue to be able to operate click-and-collect (where goods are pre-ordered and collected off the premises) and delivery services.
_________________________________________________________________________________
WALES
Scope of the guidance
The guidance, and the restrictions in the coronavirus regulations, are directed primarily at premises open to the public. Those premises may be indoors or outdoors. The primary purpose of closing premises is to reduce the number of gatherings between people, and to reduce the number of journeys that people make, in keeping with the overall rule that people should stay home as much as reasonably possible.
This means that businesses which do not operate out of premises open to the public are not included and remain permitted to operate. So, for example, construction or maintenance work on private property, factory work and cleaning services are not listed in this guidance but remain able to continue on the same basis as before.
For those businesses continuing to operate, the person responsible for the work must take all reasonable measures to minimise exposure to coronavirus on the premises and reduce the risk of those that have been on the premises from spreading the virus. Statutory guidance has been issued to help people understand what “reasonable measures” means, which those responsible for an open premises must have regard to. In addition, the Welsh Government has published guidance to help employers, employees and the self-employed to work safely during the pandemic.
At alert level 4, you can only leave home if you have a “reasonable excuse”.
There are reasons listed in the regulations why you can leave home if it is “reasonably necessary” and there is “no practicable alternative”. The regulations do not contain a complete list of circumstances in which this might arise, but they do contain examples. It is important to note that you do not automatically have a right to leave home for these purposes – you can only do so if it is necessary and there is no practicable alternative.
- for work purposes, or voluntary or charitable purposes, but only where it is not reasonably practicable to do this from home
Whenever you leave home, you should try to minimise time spent outside of the home, and ensure you stay at least 2 metres away from anyone you don’t live with or are in a permitted support bubble with.
Please see the business closures guidance for more information.
Click and collect services
Unlike in earlier lockdowns, all shops can offer click and collect or similar services, whether or not they are required to close their premises. To reduce the number of journeys made, all goods and services must be ordered in advance online, by telephone or mail order.
All reasonable measures must be put in place to ensure that a 2 metre distance is maintained between persons on the premises, as well as people waiting to collect goods at the entrance to the premises or other designated external collection point. Shops should also ensure if possible that customers do not have to enter indoor sections of closed retail premises to collect goods, and that click and collect collection points are operated as safely as possible. For example, shops should:
- put in place picking-up and dropping-off collection points where possible, rather than passing goods hand-to-hand
- stagger collection times for customers collecting items
- design their click and collect system to avoid/ reduce shared contact surfaces
- continue to frequently clean any shared surfaces that are unavoidable and increase the use of hands-free technology to deliver their services
Work carried out in people’s homes
Work carried out in people’s homes, for example by tradespeople, can continue as long as it is managed in a safe way and both the worker and household members are well and have no symptoms of coronavirus. However, we recommend that people consider whether the work can be safely deferred until they are no longer in Level 4.
Like other businesses, people working in someone else’s home must take all reasonable measures to ensure to mitigate the risk of coronavirus spreading when working in other people’s households. Please see the guidance on reasonable measures and on working in other people’s homes for more information.
It is also recommended that no work should be carried out in any household where someone is isolating, unless it is to repair a fault which poses a direct risk to people’s safety – for example, emergency plumbing, or carry out an adaptation to allow that household to remain in their property. If attendance is unavoidable (because of an urgent or emergency situation), additional precautions should be taken to keep workers and householders completely separate from each other. In these cases, Public Health Wales can provide advice to tradespeople and households. But no work should be carried out by a tradesperson who has coronavirus symptoms, however mild.
Businesses and premises that must close at level 4
All retail with notable exceptions as listed:
Exceptions
- Hardware shops, shops selling building supplies and equipment, plant and tool hire
__________________________________________________________________________________
SCOTLAND
From Tuesday 5 January, mainland Scotland will move from Level 4 to a temporary Lockdown, with new guidance to stay at home except for essential purposes. Some islands will remain at Level 3.
There is a list of examples of reasonable excuses. Although you can leave home for these purposes, you should stay as close to home as possible. Travel no further than you need to reach to a safe, non-crowded place to exercise in a socially distanced way. To minimise the risk of spread of Coronavirus it is crucial that we all avoid unnecessary travel.
Examples of reasonable excuses to go out:
- for work or an activity associated with seeking employment, or to provide voluntary or charitable services, but only where that cannot be done from your home.
Work carried out in people’s homes
Tradespeople should only go into a house to carry out or deliver essential work or services, for example:
- to carry out utility (electricity, gas, water, telephone, broadband) safety checks, repairs, maintenance and installations
- to carry out repairs and maintenance that would otherwise threaten the household’s health and safety
- to deliver goods or shopping, where essential
- to deliver, install or repair key household furniture and appliances such as washing machines, fridges and cookers
- to support a home move, for example furniture removal
Safety when working in someone else’s home
When carrying out essential work in someone’s house, tradespeople should stay 2 metres apart from the people who live there, wear a face covering and follow good hand and respiratory hygiene.
Travel
The restrictions on travel let you leave your home in a Level 4 area, and travel between areas in Levels 3 and 4 where you have a “reasonable excuse” for essential travel. The exceptions are different in each case as they align with wider restrictions at each level.
Although you can travel for these purposes, you should stay as close to home as possible. For example, shop on-line or use local shops and services wherever you can. Travel no further than you need to reach to a safe, non-crowded place to exercise in a socially distanced way.
The law lists a range of examples of reasons for which both leaving your home and travel is permitted:
- travel for work or an activity associated with seeking employment, or to provide voluntary or charitable services, but only where that cannot be done from your home.
Business and venues
Only essential retail will remain open.
A list of essential retail can be found in the question and answer section of the retail sector guidance under the sub heading ‘the shopping experience’. This list was recently updated to reflect changes which came into force on 26 December 2020, replacing the previously permitted category of “homeware, building supplies and hardware stores” with “building merchants and suppliers of products and tools used in building work and repairs”.
Additionally, some retail services are now listed under businesses which are required to close, these are:
- premises laid out as a showroom to demonstrate products for installation in residential property, such as kitchen, bathroom, furniture or glazing showrooms.
__________________________________________________________________________________
NORTHERN IRELAND
Households
Households are not allowed to mix indoors in private homes. Certain exemptions apply, including:
- building or maintenance work
- the services of trades or professions (close contact services are not allowed)
Travel
You should avoid all unnecessary travel.
Where travel is necessary for work, education and other essential purposes, people are asked to walk, cycle or use private transport, shared only with members of their household where possible.
Overnight stays and Accommodation
An overnight stay in a private home is not allowed unless it is a member of your bubble.
Hotels, guesthouses, bed and breakfast establishments, hostels and caravan sites and self-catering accommodation will only be able to operate on a restricted basis.
Accommodation can be provided for
- those already resident;
- for work-related purposes;
- for vulnerable people;
- for those in emergency situations; and
- people unable to return to their main address.
Business
Individuals should work from home unless unable to do so.
Those who cannot work from home, for example, workers in food production, construction, manufacturing, logistics or distribution can continue to go to work.
Retail
Closure of all retail businesses except for essential retail.
Click/phone and collect facilities will not be permitted for non-essential retail businesses, however delivery is allowed.
Retail premises can only remain open if the business is wholly or mainly an essential retail business. Where an essential retail business has another, separate business embedded within it that is required to close, the embedded business must close.
Essential retail businesses include, but are not limited to:
- building supplies and hardware stores (equipment for building maintenance and repairs – such as keys, locks, nuts, screws, washers, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, belts, plumbing supplies, electrical supplies, tools, and machine parts)
The full list of businesses that are permitted to remain open is defined in the regulations.
Work carried out in private homes
Unless they are specifically required to close under the regulations, workers, builders, tradespeople and other professionals can continue to go into people’s houses to carry out work such as repairs, installations and deliveries.
__________________________________________________________________________________