A review into the two-metre rule could take weeks, a minister said today, as shops across England opened their doors for the first time in almost three months.
Small Business Minister Paul Scully said the Government did not want to be "rushed into decisions" when asked about reducing the two-metre social distancing rule.
The Government is coming under increasing pressure from Tory backbenchers and business leaders to reduce the rule to allow more businesses to open. The Prime Minister has ordered a “comprehensive” review of the regulation in England.
Mr Scully told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: “It will take a matter of weeks to do but we want to make sure we get the best scientific advice.
“We can look at the international comparisons because clearly you have the likes of Germany it’s one-and-a-half metres, America is one-metre and see how those differences land in terms of the health guidance.”
Pressed on the idea it will take “weeks”, he said: “At the moment the advice is - and [for] the retailers are opening today - it is two-metres. But we will work with the best scientists…if we can reduce it then clearly we will.”
The Sutton and Cheam MP also encouraged people to go to the shops today saying "let's start opening up our economy".
He told BBC Breakfast: "The high street is going to be a different place to what it was before, with the one-way systems, with the hand sanitisers, and with people not trying clothes on in the same way.
"But, nonetheless, it is safe to shop. I would encourage people to be sensible, work with the people in the shop but do go out and shop, and start opening our economy gradually and carefully."
He added the Government would keep the two-metre rule "under review". But the hospitality sector has warned it will be badly hit if the rule remains in place, with a million jobs at risk.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UKHospitality, told the BBC it was a "matter of survival or business failure".
She said: "If businesses are opening at two-metre social distance, then they're operating at 30 per cent of their normal revenues and for a quarter of our small hospitality businesses they won't be able to open at all.
"If they open at one metre with additional protections to make sure staff and customers are safe, then they can reach 60 per cent to 70 per cent of their normal revenues, and that puts them at break-even.
"So, for many of those businesses it is literally about viability and we know that a third of businesses may not reopen as a result of prolonged closure, and that puts a million jobs at risk across the hospitality sector."
The body representing firms in the heart of London's shopping district around Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street also called for the limit to be reduced.
Jace Tyrrell, chief executive at New West End Company, told PA the two-metre rule is "sub-economic".
He said the West End - which normally turns over £10 billion a year - is expecting losses to exceed £5 billion this year, and warned that up to 50,000 jobs could be at risk.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has led calls on the Conservative benches for the limit to be reduced, claiming it "hamstrings us in a whole series of areas".
Meanwhile, former Cabinet minister John Redwood has also said there is a "good case" for the distance to be cut and the "economic impact of the reduction would be most helpful to hospitality and travel businesses".
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