Retail has asked for ‘further clarity’ after the Government announced yesterday that face coverings will be required for shoppers inside shops and supermarkets, from Friday, July 24, Mark Rowe reports.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that shoppers must wear face masks from July 24. At once Paddy Lillis, secretary of the trade union Usdaw, commented: “They [shop staff] are already dealing with more abuse than normal and this could be another flashpoint.” Retail has long known that much violence in stores is triggered by staff asking for proof of age from young people buying alcohol or cigarettes, or approaching drunks and suspected shoplifters (see separate news story on the dissatisfied retail response to the Government’s call for evidence about violence against retail – which took Home Office a full year after the consultation closed, to respond to). As Lillis asked, how are shops supposed to check under-age ID when a face is covered?! (From the website of the Association of Convenience Stores; you ‘can ask customers to temporarily remove their face coverings in the event that you have to identify someone against a proof of age card for selling age-restricted products’.)
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Hancock explained the new rule was for public protection. He acknowledged: “Sadly, sales assistants, cashiers and security guards have suffered disproportionately in this crisis.” He said shop can refuse entry to someone without a face covering, ‘and can call the police if people refuse to comply, the police have the formal enforcement powers and can issue a fine’. As he added, this is in line with how shops normally manage their customers ‘and enforcement is of course a last resort’.
Face coverings became mandatory in shops in Scotland on July 10. Visit https://www.gov.scot/coronavirus-covid-19/.
Police response
The trouble is, when retailers try to manage customers, and thieves or spitters (let alone till and ATM gas-attack robbers) do crimes, police response is slow, or never. Given the potential mass breaches of the rule, will police be dashing from supermarket to supermarket?! Inevitably, some would ask; why no face masks in pubs?! Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), asked carefully for ‘further clarity over whether the wearing of face coverings will apply to shop staff’. She stressed that while retailers will play their part in communicating the new rules on face coverings, they must not be the ones enforcing these rules; given the ‘hundreds of incidents of violence and abuse directed at retail staff every day’.
What police say
Police will expect retailers to manage entry to their stores and compliance with the law while customers are inside, with police involvement as a last resort, said Martin Hewitt, Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). He said: “As with other Coronavirus regulations, we will follow an approach of engaging, explaining, encouraging and only enforcing where encouragement has been unsuccessful.” For the Police Federation, chairman John Apter spoke likewise: it will, without doubt, add pressure to police officers who are already being stretched to the limit, he said.
The rank and file police body’s chair added: “The vast majority of the public have complied with the lockdown rules so far and I would hope that will continue and the public will do the right thing and wear face coverings in stores to help protect fellow citizens.”
Transport case study
A likely case study in how this will evolve is public transport; as it is now a legal requirement to wear a face covering when on board a bus, train or tram and you may be refused travel without one. As proposed with face coverings in retail, some people with medical conditions (and children under 11) are exempt.
Indeed Matt Hancock referred to public transport in his July 14 statement; last month, he said, ‘we made face coverings mandatory on public transport and in NHS settings. This has been successful in giving people more confidence to go on public transport and to a hospital setting when they need to.’ Similarly, Mr Hancock framed the new rule in terms of how, ‘with other social distancing measures, face coverings can make shoppers feel even more confident about returning to the high street’. To take Safer Travel in Birmingham as an example – as we’ve featured them over the years, as the CCTV control room last featured in our April 2020 print edition of Professional Security magazine.
Since June 29 police on the area’s buses, trams and trains have directed 533 passengers to leave; compared with giving three fines and making one arrest for the offence. As a sign of how police seek to manage demand, they tell passengers not to not to call 101 or use Live Chat (let alone 999!), but to report by a form on the Safer Travel website www.safertravel.info.
Downloads
The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) chief executive James Lowman said: “It’s disappointing that this advice has been leaked and suggested over a few days, causing confusion among consumers and retailers, rather than through a clear briefing with formal guidance. We are pleased that the legal responsibility for enforcing this policy will rest with the police rather than shop workers, but in reality it will be retailers and their colleagues trying to communicate and explain this to people with different views and approaches to complying with this policy.
“We have produced a poster for retailers and guidance for people working in shops, and we will work with the government, local enforcement and members to implement this successfully.”
Visit https://www.acs.org.uk/advice/face-coverings.
