Thread by @TomRHickman

Having slept on the draft Englsih Coronavirus amendment regs (I am not quite geeky enough to mean that literally).

Ok ok I probably am. But I didn't.

My thoughts are these.... [long thread]

This is a very middle English lockdown easing. Picnics, garden centres, tennis, golf, taking garden waste to the local tip, day trips to the country in the family car and house buying are all back.

So is sitting in the park with a mate and a coffee (or in present circs something rather stronger*)

*but NB Tennents Super probably would not satisfy the "physical or emotional wellbeing" requirement for recreation.

The main changes are however mainly ones of emphasis and guidance change than legal change. Here's why.

*clear legal* changes are limited:
(1) garden centres open,
(2) outdoor "sports courts" open (tennis, football, basketball hard courts),
(3) house viewing permitted, ...

Very important but really a common sense correction is that,
(4) any business that sells or hires goods or provides library service and can do so online or by phone can allow *collections* (not just deliveries)...

Also common sense: (5) waste tips are open.

(6) the most significant change is that you can be outside in a public open space for "recreation" for "emotional wellbeing" as well as for "exercise". You can, as Boris said, "sit in the sun" and (as guidance confirms) picnic. All well and good if the fine weather holds...

It means the end of "move along" directions from park attendants and police. The risk is that it fills parks with people in hot weather.

*Less clear legal changes* are
(7) the ability to exercise in a pair with another person outside your household. Since gatherings of two people in open spaces were previously allowed, and you could only be outside to exercise, this was arguably permitted already.

Especially as the guidance had said:
"you must not gather in groups of more than two people in public spaces like parks”, i.e. you can gather in groups of two people in parks for exercise.

(8) Golf. Right. The thing about golf is that there was no requirement to close golf course under the regulations in the first place. They are not outdoor sports courts. There is nothing in the new regs that addresses golf. So this is a change of guidance only.

(Possibly golf was thought not to be real "exercise" and therefore you could not leave your house to play....)

(9) You can now go out for exercise or recreation more than once per day. But again the law already permitted this in England. The once a day rule was advisory only. Nothing to see here folks, move along ...

(10) You can drive to open spaces as long as you return the same day. But this was also previously permitted by the law and the police guidance was explicit that this was OK. So it is also a change of emphasis in UK Gov advice only.

As well as these relaxations, some additional restrictions have also been brought in, some under the radar:

(1) the guidance now says you cannot share a private vehicle with a person outside your household whereas previously this was not an emphatic rule. (It is still not a legal requirement, although you would not know this from the UK Gov guidance)

(2) We are now told to avoid public transport to go to work.

(3) Also fines have are now much heavier. This is concerning given the emphasis on offering people fixed penalty notices and the (inreasingly) really difficult questions as to the boundaries of what is and is not legally prohibitted.

A note on Wales:
*There is no recreation amendment in Wales. It remains outside for exercise only.
*You can exercise now more than once per day.
*You must stay local for exercise.

An interesting question is whether a person who lives in England breaches the Welsh regulations if they go to Wales for outdoor recreation. The Regs say you cannot "leave or remain out" of your home but where the person's home is not in Wales is this breached?

Finally, to emphasise the ambiguity/unenforceability in the rules, the Welsh guidance states: "...stopping to have something to eat or sit in a park, ... is intended to be permitted. Most of the time away from home should, however, be spent exercising."

So picnics are ok in Wales as long as you spend more time walking than picnicing (this was also the case in England before today).