Live music and performance venues, more beauty treatments at salons and small wedding receptions will be able to resume in England from Saturday.
Lockdown will ease further across the country as casinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and soft play centres are back in business, Boris Johnson has confirmed. However, Greater Manchester must wait.
The Prime Minister has also introduced tough new measures targeting breaches of social distancing restrictions including fines of up to £3,200 for refusing to wear a face covering and illegal rave organisers could face up to £10,000 penalties.
Boris Johnson
Changes to lockdown from Saturday 15 August:
Indoor theatre, music and performance venues will be able to reopen with socially distanced audiences
Wedding receptions in the form of a sit-down meal for up to 30 guests will be permitted
The piloting of a small number of sporting events to test the safe return of spectators will resume, commencing with the final of the World Snooker Championship at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre over the weekend
Casinos, bowling alleys, skating rinks and soft play centres will be allowed to reopen
“Close contact” beauty services such as facials, eyebrow threading, eyelash treatments, make up application and microblading will resume
Pilots will take place at conference venues ahead of the expected resumption of business events from 1 October at the earliest
Deansgate
Speaking about the new easing of measures, the PM said: “Most people in this country are following the rules and doing their bit to control the virus, but we must remain focused and we cannot be complacent.
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“That is why we are strengthening the enforcement powers available to use against those who repeatedly flout the rules.”
The new guidance will not apply in areas where lockdown measures are in place – such as the areas in Greater Manchester where local lockdown restrictions were recently brought in.
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Parts of east Lancashire and West Yorkshire were also placed under tightened restrictions this week – including Preston and 18 other areas.
This latest easing of England’s lockdown was due to take place on 1 August, but was postponed after the Office for National Statistics expressed concerns about an increase in the number of positive tests across the country.
According to the BBC, police forces in areas of concern, such as here in Greater Manchester and in Leicester, have had to massively increase patrols – with deployments sometimes being larger than on New Year’s Eve.
Further detail on the new enforcement measures is to be set out in the coming week.
News
How will the Government’s new digital ID alternative for alcohol sales work?
Emily Sergeant
All licensed venues across England and Wales now have the choice to introduce digital proof of age for alcohol sales alongside physical.
Instead of having to hand over physical ID that contains personal information, such as names and home addresses, customers now have the choice to simply provide confirmation that they are 18 or over on their phone – helping to better protect privacy and personal safety in the process.
This means that, no matter whether you’re buying a drink at your favourite pub, heading to a festival, or enjoying a night out at a concert, you won’t need to worry if you’ve left your ID at home.
According to the Government, this new change will benefit businesses greatly too, as certified digital services are able to check that an ID is genuine and belongs to the person presenting it much easier than the alternative can, which therefore helps to reduce the risk of any fake or borrowed IDs going undetected.
Well, according to the Government, it could be as simple as a customer showing a QR code for staff to scan, or tapping their phone against a compatible reader, where staff will then receive a clear confirmation on their device that the customer has passed the age check.
This change follows a 2024 Government consultation where it was reported that 72% of respondents supported the use of digital identities for age verification when buying alcohol.
Digital Government Minister Stephanie Peacock reiterated that ‘it will remain an individual or business’ choice whether to use or adopt [digital ID]’ and that physical ID will ‘still remain a valid way’ for customers to prove their age.
“This groundbreaking change in the law will mean you do not need to carry a physical ID, nor hand over sensitive personal information such as your name or address just to prove your age, allowing everyone to feel safer on a night out,” she concluded.
Featured Image – Robin Worrall (via Unsplash)
News
Manchester to host G20 Summit in 2027 with more than a dozen world leaders descending on the city
Emily Sergeant
Manchester has been confirmed as the host city for the G20 Summit next year.
It was already announced back in November last year that the G20 Summit would be coming to the UK in 2027, and plans were apparently already being discussed to host it in Manchester even before Andy Burnham became Prime Minister and Number 10 North was set up.
But now, ahead of this year’s leaders’ summit being held in Miami in December, it has been confirmed that the G20 Summit will arrive in Manchester in November 2027.
Manchester is said to have been picked to host the leaders’ summit because of its ‘cultural heritage’.
Bringing together 19 of the world’s largest economies and two major multilateral bodies – the European Union and the African union – G20 members who will be invited to attend the summit next year make up 85% of global GDP, 75% of international trade, and two-thirds of the world’s population as a whole.
Manchester has been confirmed to host the G20 Summit in 2027 / Credit: 10 Downing Street | Paul Kagame (Flickr)
G20 members are also some of the UK’s closest economic partners, the Government insists.
17 of the UK’s top 20 global export markets attend the summit, as do 18 of the UK’s top 20 sources of foreign direct investment.
The presidency of the G20 is currently held by the US but will pass to the UK after the leaders’ summit hosted by the president at his Trump National Doral Miami golf resort in December.
The 2027 summit will be held at Manchester Central, it has been confirmed, and other locations across the UK will also host other G20 events as part of the year-long presidency, but these are yet to be announced.
The Manc -
13th August 2020 
