The HM Government guidance titled Working safely during COVID-19 in shops and branches has been updated. The updates relate to managing product handling and returns, the test and trace service, safer travel and managing security risks.

The guidance is relevant to all retail stores, bank branches, post offices and other open money businesses. This document sets out guidance on how to work safely and has been prepared by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). It gives practical considerations of how this can be applied in the workplace.

The guidance includes advice on the following main areas:

• Thinking about risk
• Who should go to work
• Social distancing at work
• Managing your customers
• Cleaning the workplace
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) and face coverings
• Workforce management
• Inbound and outbound goods

The guidance applies to those outlets that are currently open and will help those that are currently closed consider how to adapt their operations when they are allowed to open.

Employers remain legally responsible to protect workers and others from risk to their health and safety and must keep risk assessments for COVID-19 updated as the outbreak risks and government guidance continue to evolve.

Public health is devolved in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales so this guidance should be considered in those parts of the UK alongside local public health and safety requirements and legislation.