please empty your brain below
The Statutory Instrument detailing the new restrictions has now been published.

It's SI 2020/1611, the snappily titled "Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers and Obligations of Undertakings) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020".

Not surprisingly, how far you're permitted to travel if you're in a Tier 4 area doesn't appear to be defined.

Barry S | 20.12.20 - 7:12 a.m. | #

One thing I find interesting: Some places (such as Epsom where I live) has completely skipped Tier 3 and gone straight from 2 to 4. I expect there are other places like that too. (It was also interesting how Epsom didn't go into 3 with London given that, for all intents and purposes, it is a suburb of the city!)

dg writes: Epsom went into tier 3 yesterday.

One thing I find annoying: I had plans to visit family over Christmas (within the regulations and taking extra care - my family consists of one parent who will also be alone over the period) but now can't - that's not the annoying thing exactly; what is is that my kitchen cupboard and fridge are pretty much completely empty so I've got to battle my way through a supermarket either later today or tomorrow!

RG | 20.12.20 - 7:48 a.m. | #

Thanks, I've updated the post to include a link to the new legislation (which came into force at 7am). You're right, it doesn't place any specific limits on distance of travel.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 20.12.20 - 8:03 a.m. | #

I was looking forward to delivering our Granddaughter's Christmas present this morning, but have woken to discover I cannot drive from Kingston to Clapham. Leaving it on the doorstep and waving through the window won't be happening after all.

Luckily, it's a summer dress and she might not have outgrown it by the time I can safely make the delivery....

RosemaryT | 20.12.20 - 8:03 a.m. | #

Should have closed places of worship, service or line Zoom or TV/radio Christmas service

John | 20.12.20 - 8:16 a.m. | #

Helpful summary. The whole thing is a dreadful shame. But it will save lives, and better late than never.

Malcolm of Kent | 20.12.20 - 8:49 a.m. | #

Kneejerk legislation/regulation/guidance (and these different document names seem to be being used interchangeably at the moment in spite of their legal differences) are rarely, if ever, drafted well.

Tim W | 20.12.20 - 8:54 a.m. | #

(Should it say ‘5 days’ in the bottom left of the table?)

dg writes: No.

Goose | 20.12.20 - 8:54 a.m. | #

Many of us were in tier 3 for just 24 hours...

davews | 20.12.20 - 9:22 a.m. | #

It's good to see that outdoors need not only be for exercise, it can also be for "spending time". So sitting on a bench in the park is OK, without being limited to getting your breath back between bouts of exercise.
So all we need now is some nice weather.

Malcolm Story | 20.12.20 - 9:26 a.m. | #

How does this all end?

Richard | 20.12.20 - 9:38 a.m. | #

Richard it ends with the pandemic ending. How have people lost sight of that?

toby | 20.12.20 - 9:46 a.m. | #

"All those advance rail and coach tickets you bought to travel to/from your bubble should therefore no longer be used..."

The TOCs and National Express have a duty of care and ought to void and refund any and all tickets to and from Tier 4... Of course, those who saw last night's scenes from St. Pancras will know how much moral fibre the railways have. As police begin to patrol Tier 4 stations today, one must ask where they were yesterday? Once again the nation suffers from the PM's lack of immediacy, and the new strain has escaped down the Midland Main Line.

TheLupineOne | 20.12.20 - 9:53 a.m. | #

I have to wonder whether decision-makers talked to people with local knowledge before deciding these rules. Portchester is a continuous urban extension of Portsmouth, but by a quirk of local authority boundaries, comes under Fareham borough. Streets are therefore split down the middle between Tiers 2 and 4. Likewise Gosport does not have a land boundary with Portsmouth, and residents - unless taking the foot ferry across the harbour (not good) have to go through Fareham. The map shown at the Downing Street briefing does not show the area accurately - Portsmouth and Langstone harbours do not even feature.

cau1khead | 20.12.20 - 10:01 a.m. | #

I will consider myself lucky if 30 turn up to my funeral in any tier.

johnny no mates | 20.12.20 - 10:24 a.m. | #

Yes, the scenes at St Pancras certainly suggest that many people were disregarding the spirit of the law. But among the crowds there will have been a few who were travelling for entirely proper reasons. It is not the job of railway staff, who are doing a good job in appalling circumstances, to filter the sheep from the goats.
Refunds will probably be available, as they were at the first lockdown.

Malcolm | 20.12.20 - 11:58 a.m. | #

Can confirm that LNER, at least, are refunding advance tickets.

tops | 20.12.20 - 12:17 p.m. | #

Would help if the table contained a row for wraparound childcare/school holiday childcare for T4.

My wife is reading the SI to work this out both as a trustee and a user of a local charity provider of childcare (and could not work if it was not available..home based freelancer and will put some commitments back). Was permitted under T2/3.

NB there are 1600 woodcuts of people leaving/fleeing plague ridden London in the manner of last night. Circulating on twitter and LinkedIn. In effect we are having a repeat of 1647-1660 when Christmas was "banned" (declared to be a working day).

MilesT | 20.12.20 - 1:31 p.m. | #

We had made plans not to meet anyone for Christmas this year long before knowing how the situation would play out and thankfully my extended family are not bothered about "having" to be together in person for any arbitrary day on the calendar, so consequently seem to be handling the situation a lot better than those who had invested a lot of emotional energy into having the 'perfect' family festivities!

Cornish Cockney | 20.12.20 - 1:52 p.m. | #

While i was aware of the common council of the city of London, i was surprised when Temple got its own defined area (both in tier 3 and 4 rules)

Philip Young | 20.12.20 - 2:18 p.m. | #

I wonder if there is a way of signalling to internet archive that you especially would like certain pages to be archived.

MilesT | 20.12.20 - 3:18 p.m. | #

I was hoping to visit Barnard Castle over the holidays. As Dominic considered himself above the law I don't see why I shouldn't. I doubt Boris has the moral fibre to prosecute me and I'm certainly not going to let him spoil my Christmas

Tones | 20.12.20 - 5:13 p.m. | #

I'm in tier 4. Tier 2 is just down the road. In fact, the nearest supermarket is in tier 2. So I actually have to be travel further to stay local. Or something.

Confused | 20.12.20 - 8:08 p.m. | #

Does that mean you will be in London instead of Norfolk for Christmas, DG?

Bex | 20.12.20 - 10:55 p.m. | #

The bit about leaving your tier 4 area is a redundancy that’s presumably included to persuade people who are leaving their home illegally not to leave the tier 4 area. The relevant bit is “You must not leave your home except for a legally permitted reason”. If you don’t have a reason then you obviously can’t leave tier 4 because you can’t leave home. If you do have a reason then you can leave tier 4 if that’s where your reason takes you.

Mike Scott | 21.12.20 - 9:41 a.m. | #

So in Tier 3 you can visit another household for Christmas, but on 25 Dec only, and no overnight stays. How do people without cars achieve this when there is no public transport on this date and virtually none on Boxing Day?

dg advises: Read the smallprint.

Kim | 21.12.20 - 1:26 p.m. | #

The police are not authorised to decide what is or isn’t an “essential journey” either within or into or out of Tier 4.

Kim | 21.12.20 - 1:27 p.m. | #

What I have noticed is that people / newspapers assume that the south east extends no further south than Hertfordshire - in fact large swathes of the south east are still in Tier 2.

Southcoaster | 21.12.20 - 2:46 p.m. | #











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