The UK government announced today the list of places you have to wear a face-covering compulsorily from 8 August 2020 in England.
- funeral directors
- premises providing professional, legal or financial services
- cinemas
- theatres
- bingo halls
- concert halls
- museums, galleries, aquariums, indoor zoos or visitor farms, or other indoor tourist, heritage or cultural sites.
- nail, beauty, hair salons and barbers – other than where necessary to remove for treatments
- massage parlours
- public areas in hotels and hostels
- place of worship
- libraries and public reading rooms
- community centres
- social clubs
- tattoo and piercing parlours
- indoor entertainment venues (amusement arcades, funfairs, adventure activities e.g. laser quest, go-karting, escape rooms, heritage sites etc)
- storage and distribution facilities
- veterinary services.
- auction houses
The above list of places where you have to wear a face-covering from 8 August 2020 are additions to the following list of places where you have to wear a face covering by law.
- You must wear a face-covering when you are taking the public transport and in indoor transport hubs like the airports, rail and tram stations and terminals, maritime ports and terminals, bus and coach stations and terminals. This law comes into effect from 15 June 2020.
- You are also required to wear face-covering in shops and supermarkets. This law comes into force from 24 July 2020.
- Other places you must wear face-covering include indoor shopping centres, banks, building societies, and post offices, credit unions, short-term loan providers, savings clubs and money service businesses.
- NHS settings, including hospitals and primary or community care settings, such as GP surgeries.
If you are going to buy a face-covering ensure that the face-covering you bought comply with the product safety regulations.
Read the Government guidance here.
Make your own face-covering
You can make your own face covering if you are unable to get surgical masks from the shops. The UK government has also published guidance on how to wear and make a face cloth covering.
You don’t need to buy a sewing machine to make your own cloth face covering. You can use your old T-shirt.
The guidance comes with step by step how to make your own face covering with pictures illustration. It is very simple to follow.
The benefit of using cloth face-covering is that it is washable and reusable, it would be more cost effective in the long run. Additionally, you are also saving the environment by reducing waste from surgical masks.
More businesses reopening in July 2020 with COVID-19 secure measures in place
More businesses to reopen in July 2020. Every business must implement and comply with the COVID-19 secure measures requirements.
- Restaurants, bars and cafes etc can reopen from 4 July 2020.
- Outdoor swimming pools and water parks can reopen from 11 July 2020.
- Nails and beauty salons etc can reopen from 13 July 2020.
- Indoor gyms and fitness studios etccan reopen from 25 July 2020.
Companies House filings during COVID-19 pandemic
Companies House also gear up to support UK businesses during COVID-19 pandemic. They automatically extend your company’s filing deadline. This will help your company to avoid a late filing penalty if you are unable to deliver your company accounts on time. You do not need to do anything. You just need to go to Companies House website to check your new filing deadline.
Concurrently, your confirmation statement filing deadline will also be extended. You would have 6 weeks to file your confirmation statement. Similarly, for the events driven filings, you will have 42 days (6 weeks) to notify Companies House instead of the usual 14 days filing deadline.
In addition, Companies House also created an interim paperless filing service to accept documents which would normally require a live signature.
You are encouraged to file your company documents to Companies House digitally. You can use the web filing service to submit the following documents to Companies House.
- Confirmation statement
- Company accounts
- Events driven filings using Companies House forms i.e director resigned or change of your registered office address.
- Closing down your company.
To file online, you would require your company’s authentication code. The authentication code is the electronic equivalent of your company’s director(s) signatures. Keep safe your authentication code.
If you require help with your company’s filings, contact Our accountants. They will be more than happy to assist you.
