11/05/2021 End of England’s hug ‘ban’ highlights confusion over law and guidance | Coronavirus | The Guardian

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Coronavirus
End of England’s hug ‘ban’ highlights confusion over
law and guidance

Damien Gayle
@damiengayle
Mon 10 May 2021 17.38 BST

Newspapers and news programmes on Monday morning reported that people in

England would soon be allowed to hug again.

It was a tremendous feelgood story, one that filled the country with hope that the
end of the coronavirus pandemic, and its inhuman restrictions, is in sight.

But here is the rub: there is no hugging ban, and there never has been. As long as
they’ve been outdoors, at any point in the past year people in England have had a
right to hug whomever they want. But the confusion over what was illegal and what
was merely discouraged meant people saw it as a ban.

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11/05/2021 End of England’s hug ‘ban’ highlights confusion over law and guidance | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Covid 19 in the UK
Daily cases Daily deaths Total deaths

,
+708  vs last week
,
Mar

Vaccination rollout
Daily vaccinations Received 1st dose Received 2nd dose

,
+24,982  vs last week
. % . %
Dec

Cases and deaths as published 10 May 2021, vaccinations as published 9 May 2021. Daily vaccinations
includes both doses, % is of total population. Weekly change shows difference from 7 days ago.
Source: data.gov.uk.

“Throughout the past year, the government has – probably deliberately – muddled
the difference between law and guidance, and social distancing has only ever been
guidance,” said Adam Wagner, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers who has
studied coronavirus legislation.

Social distancing guidelines have been in place throughout the pandemic, advising
people to maintain a specified distance – usually 2 metres – between themselves and
others to minimise the possibility of spreading germs.

While hugging has not been banned, legally enforceable regulations did certainly
make it more difficult. At points, outdoor “gatherings” or more than two people have
been banned, and socialising at home with visitors remains forbidden.

But if people had mixed up the advice, which had the backing of a broad range of
experts, for the law, they can be excused. “The government have hardly discouraged
this confusion,” Wagner said.

Throughout the pandemic, the government has issued instructions as though they
were enforceable rules, when in fact they were not, Wagner pointed out. When Boris
Johnson announced the beginning of the first national lockdown in March by
instructing the nation to remain indoors, the order had no legal power for three
days.

“And that set the mode for the rest of the year,” Wagner said. “The most common
example that people think about is exercise once per day, which has never been part
of the law. It’s always been the law that you can exercise whenever you want.”

It is not just the public who have been left scratching their heads. Last spring,
confusion over the legal status of rules around social distancing and for what
reasons people could leave home led to police patrolling parks, scolding people for

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11/05/2021 End of England’s hug ‘ban’ highlights confusion over law and guidance | Coronavirus | The Guardian

sitting too close to each other, or doing the wrong kind of exercise. Eventually the
College of Policing issued guidance telling officers to only enforce what was written
in the law.

Silkie Carlo, the director of the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said:
“Throughout the pandemic the government has often blurred the lines, sometimes
deliberately, between the law and merely its wishes, causing real damage to
democracy and the rule of law.

“It’s quite disturbing to see this seem to manifest in huge volumes of favourable
media coverage on government lifting a hugging ban that literally doesn’t exist. It
would be extremely absurd if it did exist.”

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