Published: Monday, 21st September 2020
With coronavirus cases rising recently in London, it is essential that businesses are remaining COVID-secure and following the necessary measures to keep everyone safe.
A number of new government restrictions have been announced that affect businesses from Thursday 24 September:
- Businesses selling food or drink must be closed between 10pm and 5am. This will include takeaways but delivery services can continue after 10pm (from 24 September)
- In licensed premises, food and drink must be ordered from, and served at, a table
- Businesses will need to display the official NHS QR code posters (from 24 September)
- Customers in hospitality venues must wear face coverings, except when seated at a table to eat or drink. Staff in hospitality and retail will now also be required to wear face coverings (from 24 September)
- Businesses and organisations will face stricter rules to make their premises COVID secure, this includes fines of up to £10,000 for repeated breaches (from 28 September)
Designated businesses and venues have a legal duty to collect contact tracing data
Venues such as pubs, restaurants and hairdresser are legally required to collect customer and visitor contact details to help trace and stop the spread of COVID-19, and from 24 September they will be required to display the NHS COVID-19 app QR poster.
The latest government announcement has made it a legal requirement for designated venues in certain sectors to request and record contact details of their customers, visitors, and staff.
This includes venues in the hospitality sector, such as pubs and restaurants, the tourism and leisure industry, such as hotels, museums and cinemas, and places of worship.
These venues must:
- ask at least one member of every party of customers or visitors (up to six people) to provide their name and contact details
- keep a record of all staff working on their premises and shift times on a given day and their contact details
- keep these records of customers, visitors and staff for 21 days and provide data to NHS Test and Trace if requested
- display an official NHS QR code poster from 24 September 2020, so that customers and visitors can ‘check in’ using this option as an alternative to providing their contact details
- adhere to data protection requirement
Anyone who does not follow these measures must be refused entry and venues could face fixed penalty fines for failing to comply with the above requirements.
NHS Test and Trace
The NHS COVID-19 Test and Trace app is launching on 24 September, and will allow users to check in when they visit a venue by scanning a QR code which will be displayed on posters at the venue.
You are required to display an NHS QR code from 24 September if you are:
- a business, place of worship or community organisation with a physical location that is open to the public
- an event which is taking place in a physical location
If you have more than one venue, you need to create a separate QR code for each location.