Thank you for contacting me about face coverings.

The Health Secretary made a statement in the House of Commons which you may find useful: “In recent weeks we have reopened retail and footfall is rising. We want to give people more confidence to shop safely and enhance protections for those who work in shops. Both of those can be done by the use of face coverings. Sadly, sales assistants, cashiers and security guards have suffered disproportionately in this crisis. The death rate of sales and retail assistants is 75% higher among men and 60% higher among women than in the general population. As we restore shopping, so we must keep our shopkeepers safe.

There is also evidence that face coverings increase confidence in people to shop. The British Retail Consortium has said that, together with other social distancing measures, face coverings can make shoppers feel even more confident about returning to the High Street.”

In addition, the chair of the Federation of Small Businesses has said: “As mandatory face coverings are introduced, small firms know that they have a part to play in the nation’s recovery both physically and financially, and I’m sure this will welcomed by them. We have therefore come to the decision that face coverings should be mandatory in shops and supermarkets. Last month, we made face coverings mandatory on public transport and in NHS settings, and that has been successful in giving people more confidence to go on public transport and to a hospital setting when they need to, providing people with additional protection when they are not able to keep 2 metres from others, particularly people they do not normally come into contact with. Under the new rules, people who do not wear face coverings will face a fine of up to £100 in line with the sanction on public transport and, just as with public transport, children under 11 and those with certain disabilities will be exempt.”

Our principal aim is to make sure that we protect individuals and workers as we work together to continue to slow the spread of the virus and help us all to allow the economy to bounceback while protecting the health and safety of us all.

You can see helpful information on how to make your own face covering here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-...
Thank you for contacting me on this important matter.