Five new ministerial-led taskforces have been set up to develop plans for how and when closed sectors can reopen safely in England, following the publication of the UK Government’s roadmap to rebuild Britain. They will look at the following sectors:

• pubs and restaurants (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
• non-essential retail (including salons) (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
• recreation and leisure, including tourism, culture and heritage, libraries, entertainment and sport (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
• places of worship, including faith, community and public buildings (Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government)
• international aviation, reflecting the unique challenges that sector is facing (Department for Transport).

Each taskforce will work across Government and engage with key stakeholders in public health, industry, trade unions and devolved administrations to ensure that COVID-19 secure guidelines are developed in line with the phased approach and public health directions, building on the existing guidance and providing intelligence and sector-specific expert input, to agree and ensure alignment of all relevant sectoral guidance and to provide key sector stakeholders direct access to Ministers to shape the guidance.

The full guidance on the establishment of the taskforces is here.

Specifically in relation to places of worship, the Government envisages the following:

* On Friday 15 May 2020,  the first Taskforce on Reopening Places of Worship was held with faith leaders to plan their safe, phased reopening, for individual prayer and public worship, including weddings and funerals. Extracts from the Press Release are reproduced in our post here.