Beauty salons, nail bars, tattoo and massage studios, physical therapy businesses and spas across England will be able to reopen safely from Monday 13 July under new government plans, announced today.
Lucy had lobbied ministers directly, including the Secretary of State for Business, to ensure that beauty businesses could reopen in line with the new guidance.
Updated COVID-19 secure guidance sets out the measures that those providing close contact services should follow to protect staff and customers. Only services that do not involve work in the highest risk zone – directly in front of the face – should be made available to clients. This means that treatments such as face waxing, eyelash treatments, make-up application and facial treatments, should not be provided until government advice changes, due to the much greater risk of transmission.
Where 2 metre social distancing cannot be maintained, for example when providing a treatment, the person providing the service should wear further protection in addition to any that they may usually wear. This should be a clear visor that covers the face, or the use of a screen or other barrier that protects the practitioner and the customer from respiratory droplets caused by sneezing, coughing or speaking.
The government has worked with a range of stakeholders in the beauty industry to develop the measures close contact services will need to consider to become COVID-19 secure, including:
- using screens or barriers to separate clients from each other, and to separate practitioners from clients, such as in nail salons
- operating an appointment-only booking system to minimise the number of people on the premises at any one time
- keeping the activity time involved to a minimum
- increasing the frequency of hand washing and surface cleaning, as well as regularly cleaning equipment or using disposable equipment where possible
- avoiding skin to skin contact and wearing gloves where it is not crucial to the service, such as in nail bars and tanning salons
- maintaining sufficient spacing between customer chairs
- not allowing food or drink, other than water, to be consumed in the salon by customers
- making sure a limited and fixed number of workers work together, if they have to be in close proximity to do their jobs
Business Secretary, Alok Sharma MP said:
"We have been clear throughout this crisis that we want as many businesses as possible to reopen, but we must be confident it is safe for them to do so.
From Monday 13 July thousands more businesses which offer close contact services like nail and beauty salons will be able to welcome customers back in a way that is safe for both workers and the public.
Enabling these often small, independent businesses to reopen is yet another step in our plan to kickstart the economy to support jobs and incomes across the country."
