Lockdown restrictions are being eased again across the UK over the next few days, with groups of people from different households finally being allowed to meet in each other’s gardens or in public spaces.
For millions of people it will be the first time they have been able to meet up with their families in more than two months. In England the changes come into effect on Monday. Up to six people will be able to meet outdoors, staying two metres apart.
In Northern Ireland people are already permitted to meet up in groups and Wales is due to set out its plans. Scotland is also easing its restrictions after what First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said was a sustained downward trend in the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile Durham Police have issued a statement saying the Prime Minister’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings might have broken lockdown rules when he drove to Barnard Castle. They described it as a minor breach of the regulations and said no action would be taken.
Sophie Raworth presents BBC News at Ten reports from Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg at Westminster, Danny Savage in Harrogate and Scotland Editor Sarah Smith in Glasgow.
The video item below is a piece of English language content from BBC News. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster funded by the UK Government, and British license fee payers. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, London.
Barnard Castle is a market town and tourist destination in Teesdale, County Durham, England. It is named after the castle around which it was built.
The Bowes Museum has what is considered to be the best collection of European fine and decorative arts in the North of England, housed in a 19th-century French-style chateau. Its most famous exhibit is the 18th-century Silver Swan automaton.
Barnard Castle sits on the north bank of the River Tees, opposite Startforth and 21 miles (34 km) south-west of the county town of Durham. Nearby towns include Bishop Auckland to the north-east and Darlington to the east.
Barnard Castle’s largest single employer is GlaxoSmithKline, which has a manufacturing facility on the town outskirts.
The town became notorious in 2020 as the destination for a trip by the UK’s most senior political adviser, Dominic Cummings, which was judged to have broken lockdown rules and resulted in a public statement and widespread condemnation.
Dominic Cummings is a British political strategist who served as senior adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson from July 2019 until the Autumn of 2020.
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George’s Channel.
Geopolitically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland), which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. As of 2016, 4.8 million people live in the Republic of Ireland, and 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.
The Irish climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and thus very moderate, and winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, although summers are cooler than those in continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant.
A strong Irish culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music and the Irish language. The island’s culture shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing, and golf.
Laura Juliet Kuenssberg is a British journalist. In July 2015 she succeeded Nick Robinson as Political Editor of BBC News, the first woman to hold the position.
During the 2020 Covid-19 epidemic, lockdown has come to mean the practice of attempting to control transmission of the virus by means of restricting people’s movement and activities on a broad scale, usually on a national or state-wide basis.
Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon is a Scottish politician who is currently serving as the fifth First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party since November 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position.
Northern Ireland is variously described as a country, province, or region, which is part of the United Kingdom. Located in the northeast of the island of Ireland, Northern Ireland shares a border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland.
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and the use of force legitimized by the state via the monopoly on violence.
Scotland is a country in Western Europe which forms part of the United Kingdom. Its government was joined with that of England’s through the 1707 Acts of Union. A devolved government now administers many of the affairs of the country, though ultimate authority still resides with Westminster. Scotland has a distinct legal system and national sporting associations. 5.2 million people live in Scotland and the largest city in the country is Glasgow, though the capital is Edinburgh where the government sits at the Scottish Parliament opposite Holyrood Palace.
