Keeping you safe – Updates to the Safer Transport Guidance for Operators
17 May 2021
The DfT has recently released updates to the Safer Transport Guidance for Operators. These have been made to work with changes to the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown.
The updates have been made to the sections of the guidance relating to safer working principles and risk assessment for transport operators and organisations.
Probably of most significant to operators is that the section of the guidance headlined “social contact” has been removed, and replaced with other guidance.
Meeting and Travelling with other People
On all public transport passengers must travel in groups of no more than 6, or 2 households, unless they are travelling for a reason that is exempt.
People can travel in a group larger than 6 people or 2 households where travel is reasonably necessary in order to carry out a specific activity:
- with work, for example, transport organised by an employer during the course of their work;
- providing emergency assistance, and to avoid injury or illness or to escape risk of harm.
These rules do not place any capacity constraints on public transport services and private hire vehicles, including organised coach travel.
Operators should continue to provide transport services that can accommodate separate multiple groups which conform to the requirements of the relevant social distancing rules.
Enforcement of Social Distancing Rules
Operators can recommend to passengers to check the relevant social distancing rules in force to check if a particular activity applies to their journey.
The police will be able to take action against those who break these rules, including asking people to disperse and issuing a fixed penalty notice of £200 for the first offence.
People aged 18 or over can be fined:
- £200 for the first offence, lowered to £100 if paid within 14 days
- £400 for the second offence, then doubling for each further offence up to a maximum of £6,400.
Transport providers operating cross-border services should be aware that the rules for meeting indoors and outdoors are different in the other UK nations:
The updated guidance can be found here and applies to operators in England only.
Please contact the Regulatory team at regulatory@backhouses.co.uk for more information.
