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news
Unlimited exercise allowed from Wednesday, says PM Boris Johnson – although existing legislation placed no limits
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has this evening said that from Wednesday, people in England will be allowed "unlimited outdoor exercise" as he set out the government's "roadmap" to ease lockdown restrictions – aIthough according to the letter of existing legislation, there were no such limits on exercise. He also said that people unable to work from home, such as construction or factory workers, are advised to return to work from tomorrow but to avoid public transport and to travel only "by car or even better by walking or by bicycle."
In his address, the Prime Minister said: "From this Wednesday, we want to encourage people to take more and even unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise.
"You can sit in the sun in your local park, you can drive to other destinations, you can even play sports but only with members of your own household.
"You must obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them."
Existing regulations place no restrictions on amount of exercise
As we’ve previously pointed out here on road.cc, emergency regulations implemented in late March in England do not in fact place restrictions on the number of times people may leave their homes to exercise each day.
> Cycling dos and don'ts in a time of pandemic – how to be a responsible cyclist
Under The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020, “undertaking exercise either alone or with other members of the household” constitutes a “reasonable excuse” for leaving home.
Speaking ahead of that legislation being introduced in late March, Johnson said that people could “undertake one form of exercise” each day, with cycling being one example given, provided it is undertaken alone or with others with whom they live, something that has been reiterated in government guidance.
Last month, however, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) issued guidance to police forces in England in which it said that in relation to exercising more than once per day, “the only relevant consideration is whether repeated exercise on the same day can be considered a ‘reasonable excuse’ for leaving home.”
That guidance from the CPS, issued after the original regulations had been reconfirmed after being in force for three weeks, was drawn up partly in response to concerns that some police forces had been over-prescriptive in their interpretation of the regulations.
In part, that has been caused by confusion due to the looseness of the wording of the regulations compared to what Johnson and other cabinet members have said in public.
At the end of March, for example, Michael Gove told the BBC’s Andrew Marr, who had asked him how long exercise should ask, “Well, obviously it depends on each individual’s fitness, but I would have thought that for most people a walk of up to an hour or a run of 30 minutes or a cycle ride, depending on their level of fitness is appropriate.”
It’s unclear whether the wording of the regulations themselves, so far as they relate to exercise, will be amended in the light of the Prime Minister’s statement this evening, but his reference to “unlimited exercise” being allowed from Wednesday should remove uncertainty about how they should be interpreted.
Regarding Johnson's references to sitting to the park in the sun, or driving to other destinations, the CPS last month said that activities "not likely to be reasonable" included "Driving for a prolonged period with only brief exercise" and "A short walk to a park bench, when the person remains seated for a much longer period."
This evening's announcement suggests that each of those is now considered by the government to be a "reasonable" excuse to leave the house and will be interpreted by nmany to do just that, exercise or not, and irrespective of the distance involved.
The reference by the Prime Minister to people being able to sit in the sun, or drive to other destinations, was greeted with dismay by tourist chiefs in Cumbria, one of the worst hit counties in England by the coronavirus.
Cumbira Tourism said: "We are shocked by the timing and short notice of tonight's announcement. We are awaiting further details but the safety of residents must come first. For now, tourism businesses in Cumbria remain closed and we urge everyone to continue to #StayHome."
People encouraged to cycle or walk to work
In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Johnson, heralded “a new golden age for cycling,” with the government underlining the importance of travelling by bike (as well as on foot) given the reduced capacity on public transport due to fewer services and social distancing, and the prospect of gridlock if people travel by car – should they have access to one at all, of course.
Yesterday, transport secretary Grant Shapps unveiled £250 million in emergency active travel funding to enable councils across England, excluding London, to put measures such as pop-up infrastructure in place to encourage cycling and walking.
> Government announces £250m emergency active travel fund as part of £2bn investment
Many people have returned to cycling or even taken it up for the first time since the lockdown began, whether doing so for exercise or to travel to work while avoiding public transport, including NHS key workers.
Johnson said this evening: "We said that you should work from home if you can, and only go to work if you must.
"We now need to stress that anyone who can’t work from home, for instance those in construction or manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to go to work.
"And we want it to be safe for you to get to work. So you should avoid public transport if at all possible – because we must and will maintain social distancing, and capacity will therefore be limited.
"So work from home if you can, but you should go to work if you can’t work from home.
"And to ensure you are safe at work we have been working to establish new guidance for employers to make workplaces COVID-secure."
He added: "And when you do go to work, if possible do so by car or even better by walking or bicycle. But just as with workplaces, public transport operators will also be following COVID-secure standards."
Again, that doesn't actually change what was already in the regulations, which say that a reasonable excuse for leaving the home includes "to travel for the purposes of work or to provide voluntary or charitable services, where it is not reasonably possible for that person to work, or to provide those services, from the place where they are living."
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland keep 'Stay home' message
While government messaging in England is now based on the key phrase "Stay alert" - introduced this weekend to widespread confusion - the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are continuing with the "Stay home" message used ever since the lockdown was introduced at the end of March.
Ahead of Friday’s bank holiday to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, a number of newspapers on Thursday splashed headlines across their front pages suggesting that the lockdown was being lifted.
As a result, many people in England appeared to have assumed that tonight’s address would include a significant relaxation of restrictions, an expectation that the government has tried to dispel in the days since then.
It does seem, however, that traffic has increased in recent days and that more people have been taking to parks and other open spaces to enjoy the sunshine this weekend, possibly in anticipation of significant changes being made to the lockdown.
Johnson insisted in his address that the the lockdown had "prevented this country from being engulfed by what could have been a catastrophe," although 31,855 people in the UK have now lost their lives due to coronavirus, the second highest death toll in the world behind the United States, and the biggest in Europe.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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55 comments
What a farcicle cock up it all is over there. So glad I got out. My whole family who are left in England all seem to want to leave too. This pandemic has been quite handy for the brittish/brexit gornment as they can blame a lot of self inflicted problems on it. I don't think much of our Irish government but they havn't done too bad at all over this, which is probably why the British media never mention how it's going in Ireland (I've heard them mention Irish statistics once, quickly and quietly). But of course "you can't compare one country to another"???? The "yes minister" quotes were bang on as that programe always was. Good luck to you over there, you need it.
Ably summed up, and thanks for the good wishes. We're going to need them with Boris the Liar in charge, he even lied in his broadcast last night, claiming that we're doing hundreds of thousands of tests a day when we haven't even hit 100,000.
What level of family connection do you need to get an Irish passport? Not asking for a friend, I'm asking for me.
AFAIK you need a grandparent or parent born on the island of Ireland, and that's all.
You may not even need that if you are good enough at football to play for the Republic of Ireland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Cascarino
I'm not an Irish passport holder yet, I do qualify but I havn't paid my 1,000 euro. I think it's an Irish parent or 7 years residence or 5 years residence if married to an Irish citizen. My wife and kids are all Irish citizens. They do seem very happy with "blow'ins", in this part of the country anyway. It's a much more pleasant place to live than England. And I'm from a very nice part of England.
ITV did actually have a peice comparing N. Ireland to ROI a few days ago. Not sure if it was deaths or how many contracted coronavirus but in the north it was 80 something per million and in the republic it was 40 something per million. Obviously Mr Johnson and friends/puppeteers could have done better.
it makes no sense! i'm going to miss how the roads were 4- 5 weeks ago. Really, really miss it. It was so empty from cars and just people/ familes cycling. Could have kept it that way but nope. Lets just twaddle on with no real direction for staff or employers. I like boris but what he said tonight is so vague.
Level 5 - nope, not coming out: thanks, but no thanks, really don't want to get dose of this at all ever. Haven't been on a bus since 1996. Quite happy with Tesco, my Netflix and Zwift til we get a vaccine.
Level 4 - the Thursday meeting ? must I? Half the people will remote in anyway, what's the point? Are the showers fixed yet - they weren't working all through March. No, I don't think 6 traffic cones make a cycle lane, Alistair, you really ought to try it for yourself.
Level 3 - looking forward to getting back to some sort of routine, get the kids back to school and we haven't seen Kate's mum since February. maybe we will get that week in Devon after all?
B&Q is open, but What about the tip? Need to get rid of last year's rubbish to make room for this year's.
level 2 - yaaaay it's party time, let's all get in the car, go to the drive-thru and take it all down to the beach/beauty spot and/or have a BBQ - that wooden picnic table will do - set it up there.
And Fido can go for his walkies on the common that we can't possibly walk to across that nasty busy road. Can we, eh, boy, can we - nooo - he knows every word you say.
level 1 - it's all over, we all rush out and vote for Clement Attlee
There's a cure for that; only available privately of course.
There is a cure for that...everything he says and everything he does.
So the fuckwits who ignored the lockdown restrictions now have an excuse, they didn't understand the rules.
Nearly. The reason it's so vague and undefined is so that he can blame the public when the death rate exceeds that of the USA.
All totally deliberate.
Utter shite
The roads will be full of cars now
You could always exercise as long as you wanted (except in Wales it had to be one trip)
The NHS will be stretched with the A&E from those collisions.
the roads were pretty full last week already, the AA were reporting callout levels were back to 90% of normal, so the lockdown was already crumbling in the general publics minds, certainly I noticed last week on the roads and in supermarkets,outside felt the nearest to normal its felt throughout all of this.
whilst the thing about exercise,my take from it is this, we knew what the legislation said and what that did and didnt limit us to do, but there was a good deal of confusion created by politicians,the media, the police, the cps and associated mouthpiece organisations which translated into a misunderstanding and a belief in the general publics mind there were limits on us
some of those in the general public then took it upon themselves to go all vigilante and enforce the rules they thought existed and plant nails on planks in woodlands, or deposit drawing pins on roads
whilst Ive not encountered that extreme reaction,though theres a ton of glass appeared along a good 3mile stretch on one of my routes , Ive certainly had feedback from people Ive encountered on my rides, that I was in their eyes behaving wrongly by riding my bike during this situation and I always felt like I was having to justify to other people that I was allowed to be out riding, people were IIRC printing out the legislation to carry around with them in case they were going to be stopped by the police so they could challenge them.
so any attempt by government to clarify it properly, so it aligns with what we all knew the legislation said, is a big win IMO, anyone who challenges me now I can say didnt you watch the big announcement by Boris on the tv, he said I can ride my bike unlimited.
A fair few people on this forum were getting pretty vigilante themeselves in wanting to enforce the rules as they saw it on other cyclists’ rides. Perhaps they can go back to judging fellow cyclists on their sock/shoe combo or their weight or wearing the right sort of jersey now. Because judge they must. There’s wankers In every community, two wheels or four.
There's a bit of a difference between being a bit judgy and high-handed on an internet forum, and 'getting vigilante'. I don't recall anyone here threatening to seek out the people they disagreed with and physically enforcing their views. A couple have got a bit sweary at times, but I don't think that really justifies the hyperbole.
Fair point. Replace "vigilante" with "high handed and censorious".
There was a thread on an MTBing group form some high-handed busybody saying about all these new cyclists out and about and how "the cycling community" (by which I suspect he meant the ones that he determined to be "proper cyclists") should tell all these newbies to wear helmets.
Natuarlly the thread degenerated very quickly into a whole load of anecdotes about how someone's hairdresser's cousin's dad went out without a helmet and DIED 17 times and how the brother of their sister's best mate was wearing a helmet, fell of twelve cliffs and still survived without a scratch on him therefore HELMETS HELMETS!
All got very judgemental.
Well, they've got a point. If the past ten years have taught me anything, it's that people will believe what they want to believe, including fairy stories from politicians and the msm, and facts are irrelevant.
Maybe some of us were simply annoyed that a few self promoting freedom fighters were posting their flagrant disregard for official guidelines in public forums. Having seen the more draconian enforcement of stay at home / exercise near home rules in Wales and Scotland, my concern would be that providing evidence to the shouty gammons and the msm clickbait trolls, who like it or not do influence public opinion, and by extention public policy, carries the distinct risk that the actions of a few lead to the removal of rights for the many.
I have not seen the 'draconian enforcement in Scotland' and the tone is different from Wales.
Stay at home does remain clear here though.
Johnson is a populist politician, wanting to be seen as dynamic and doing something when he's really not doing anything. His supporters will think this is a bold, prime ministerial move when, as stated above, it doesn't really change anything but the wording.
Unfortunately it's the populist move of encouraging car use that is more an issue.
In the past 24hrs we've had a minister introduced statutory guidance to aid cycling and walking and plans for safe streets to encourage active travel to schools. Now with the PM encouraging people back into cars those two initiatives are pretty much dead in the water as drivers will reassert their right to the roads before changes can be made in many places.
The time to introduce plans for better streets was 5-6 weeks ago at the start of lockdown not 24hrs before ending restrictions on motor traffic.
Just remember,
Stay Alert...
let's hope all those who have parked the car up for the last few weeks haven't forgotten how to drive...
For the invisible, odourless virus.
SMDSY
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader in Westminster, said: “What kind of buffoon thinks of this kind of nonsense? It is an invisible threat. Staying alert is not the answer.”
I'm guessing the 'alert' thing is laying the ground for their centralised data collection contact tracing app, they will doubtless weave that word into its title, and will be laying it on thick that everone must download it, and not question their propensity to repurpose or just lose the data. Watch this space!
Good lord! You mean... the Government might use all that data for purposes other than Saving Us From The Virus, and might just sell it on to data miners for political or just general surveillance purposes, or give it to Dom to rummage through at the weekends?
Government advice will now be that the virus wears hi-viz.
The virus is transmitted via close proximity to other people and through contaminated objects.
People and objects are both quite visible to most so remaining alert seems perfectly valid.
Unless you're a politician irresponsibly trying to score points.
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