Watching the scenes of English football hooligans invading Wembley and trashing Leicester Square last night, it was hard to believe there is still a week to go until ‘Freedom Day’.

That’s as long as Boris Johnson confirms the move in a press conference today, when he is expected to announce all social distancing measures will be lifted in England on 19 July. But the moment so many of us have longed for also threatens to cause chaos for the food and drink industry.

Just as individuals will each have their own interpretation of personal responsibility, the lifting of restrictions raises all sorts of moral and legal dilemmas for businesses desperately in need of clarity. 

Will supermarkets be expected to scrap the one metre plus rule and allow their staff and shoppers to stop wearing masks? Will food factories that have developed hugely sophisticated (and expensive) practices to keep their workforces safe during the pandemic call time on these measures and revert to business as usual?

While some elements of the way forward have been well signposted – supermarkets have said they will keep the Perspex screens that have become an accepted part of the shopping experience – elsewhere the path is unclear. “The uncertainty around Freedom Day is causing as much confusion as anything we’ve seen in the pandemic,” says one supplier source, who fears a free-for-all unless ministers recognise the need for detailed guidance.

When the rules of social distancing go, it appears businesses will move on from the dying Public Health England regime that set the guidelines during the pandemic, instead reverting to the statutory duty of care they had before coronavirus, policed by the Health & Safety Executive.

“There are big questions about how this will work,” says the source. “The PM’s suggestion that we need to continue to be cautious suggests that business will be expected to keep some of the measures they have brought in, such as staff working in cohorts.

“But what if your competition chucks all that out of the window, leaving you with a cost disadvantage? What are you supposed to do then?”

These questions and more are expected to be among the key issues raised at the Food Resilience Industry Forum (FRIF) meeting with Defra officials on Thursday, scheduled to be the last one before the organisation is controversially wound up – in another sign of the government wanting to step back from its guiding role.

“There are many issues raised by the lifting of restrictions,” says a FRIF source. “Social distancing – will it be retained or removed? Some businesses have suggested the cost alone would be prohibitive in terms of their ability to then put it back in place once it had been removed.

“Face masks – if the government is no longer suggesting they’re required, will some businesses insist on their use in communal areas for staff?

“Then there is self-isolation – what will this look like when some businesses already have large numbers of workers on the same shift having to isolate, having been pinged by test and trace?” 

Another retail source agrees: “What we really need is advice from the government that is as clear and consistent as possible.” They say there is no consensus among leading retailers about how quicky they will scrap social distancing measures, even with only a few days left, while unions are urging the government to keep them in place to protect staff.

The government is expected to issue guidance after today’s press conference, but how detailed and how prescriptive is unclear, with Tory hawks urging Johnson to move away from what they regard as “industry hand-holding”.

Given that consistency and clarity have hardly been associated with the government response to the pandemic, to expect it at this point might sadly turn out to be wishful thinking – a bit like football coming home. 

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