Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 — Extension of Requirement to Wear Face Coverings — 23 Sep 2020 at 20:40

The majority of MPs voted in favour of extending a general requirement to wear face coverings in venues such as shops, shopping centres, banks and post offices to a wider range of places including places of worship, cinemas, crematoria, museums, hotel lobbies and cinemas.

This vote, on 23 September 2020, was on regulations which had come into force on the 8th of August 2020.

The motion supported by a majority of MPs in this vote was:

• That the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (S.I., 2020, No. 839), dated 6 August 2020, a copy of which was laid before this House on 7 August, be approved.

The regulations amended the The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place) (England) Regulations 2020, those previous regulations provided for a general requirement to wear a face covering in shops, enclosed shopping centres, post offices and banks / building societies etc. and included an exemption in the case of a "Reasonable excuse", examples of which were given.

A general requirement to wear face-coverings in certain places was extended to additionally include:

• Indoor places of worship. (Defined as "any building, room or other indoor premises used for public religious worship")
• Community centres including youth centres.
• Crematoria (as defined via section 2 of the Cremation Act 1902(2) as "any building fitted with appliances for the purpose of burning human remains, and shall include everything incidental or ancillary thereto") and burial ground chapels.
• Public areas in hotels and hostels.
• Concert halls, exhibition halls and other public halls.
• Cinemas.
• Museums, galleries, aquariums, indoor zoos and visitor farms, and other indoor, or indoor parts of, tourist, heritage or cultural sites.
• Bingo halls.
• Public libraries and reading rooms.

The explanatory notes^[1] state the regulations correct "two small typographical errors and one other minor error contained in the Face Coverings Regulations." The structure of the substantive regulations is changed, with Part II of the Schedule being removed and a second schedule added.

One of the "small typographical errors" appears inconsequential and perhaps merely a matter of style:

• "(c)a part of such premises if it is in itself a premises mentioned in paragraph 1(1)(a) to (c) of the Schedule; or"

becomes

• "(c)a part of such premises if it is itself a premises mentioned in paragraph 1(1)(a) to (c) of the Schedule; or"

The definition of “registered pharmacy” by reference to section 74 of the Medicines Act 1968 was moved alongside other definitions. This was again an inconsequential change, but it may aid readers.

• [1] Explanatory memorandum to the The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, Legislation.gov.uk

Debate in Parliament |