When are non-essential shops opening in England?

30 November 2020, 14:54

When are non-essential shops allowed to reopen in England and can they open in all Tiers? Rules for Tiers 1, 2 and 3.

This Wednesday (2 December), the current lockdown will come to an end, and will be replaced with a Tiered system or restrictions.

Read more: Santa's Grottos allowed in all Tiers in England as government publish festive guidelines

Around 99 per cent of the country are in Tiers 2 and 3, 'high' and 'very high' alert levels respectively, and will still be subject to a strict set of rules to help curb the spread of coronavirus.

The rules for each Tier will be slightly different than previous, with all non-essential shops allowed to reopen.

Here are the new rules you need to know.

When are non-essential shops allowed to reopen?

Non-essential shops are allowed to reopen across the country on 2 December, as the new Tiered system is introduced at exactly 0:01am on Wednesday.

Read more: New Year's Eve pub trips banned for millions as government issues warning

Will non-essential shops re-open in all Tiers?

Yes. Unlike the previous lockdown, all non-essential shops, gyms, and hairdressers will be allowed to reopen in all Tiers.

What are the rules for Christmas shopping?

People across the country will be able to do Christmas shopping on the high street while the Tiered system is in place, something that a SAGE scientist recently offered the public advice about.

Professor Lucy Yardley advised not spending more than 15 minutes in a shop, adding that that the 'less time you spend in there, the safer you are' while shopping for presents.

Health Secretary outlines restrictions in each tier

When asked in a recent interview how long is 'too long' to spent in one shop, she said: "Well, the rule that is useful for contact tracing is that if you spend 15 minutes with somebody closer than two metres, then you have definitely had a potentially infectious contact with them.

"So that's quite a generous amount of time, I am not sure that most of us would need that amount of time in a shop.

"And really the the less time that you spend in there, the safer you are. If you spend time, close enough to somebody and they happen to bring it on you or call for new, then it doesn't take 15 minutes to catch the virus."

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