Working from home advice changes announced as Brits could head back out to jobs

From August 1 the Government will change its advice on working from home, to give employers discretion over whether to ask staff to go back to work, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.

The Prime Minister is eager to get employees back to their workplaces if they are safe following the country's coronavirus lockdown.

The official Government advice is still "work from home if you can", but Mr Johnson has said people should be talking to their bosses about "looking to come back to work in a safe way".

In a press conference on Friday, July 17, Mr Johnson said: "At the start of the pandemic we knew far less about the virus and national lockdown was the right thing to do.

"But we understand the virus more now and our knowledge of where it is spreading is vastly improved.

"I strongly believe we should hope for the best and that means looking ahead with optimism.

"We need to get back to something resembling a normal life, this timetable is contingent on us staying alert and acting responsibly.

"In England, we are making clear that anyone can use public transport from today onwards.

"From July 25 we've committed to reopening gyms.

"From August 1 we will update our advice on going to work, we're going to give employers more discretion and ask employers to make decisions on how their staff can work safely.

"This could be working from home or it could mean making workplaces safe by employing COVID safe measures

"We want employers to only ask people to return to their place of work if it is safe."

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London mayor Sadiq Khan has warned the government should not encourage people to return to their workplaces if it means overcrowding the Tube system, as was seen at the start of the pandemic.

“It’s really important if the government is going to be asking people to return to work they do so safely. That means making sure they don’t have Tubes packed like they were before the pandemic. So I’d ask employers to make sure start and finish times are staggered to avoid the rush hour.

“It’s really important that we don't have a return to work that leads to a second wave. That would be catastrophic for our economy and could overrun the NHS and lead to more lives being lost.”

Khan also accused the government of being “too slow” to work with City Hall and councils over planning potential local lockdowns in the event of a concentrated coronavirus outbreak in the capital. “I haven’t got any confidence that we could have a geographical lockdown in London,” he told the PA news agency.

“We probably could lock down a building, if it’s a factory or a place of worship or a school. That’s why it’s really important at long last that the government provides us with the power, resources, clarity and information, should there be a need, heaven forbid, for a local lockdown in London.”