Beauty industry to fully reopen in England

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has today announced that ‘close contact services’ such as beauty will be able to fully reopen in England from Saturday 1^st August. 

This comes after an announcement last week that beauty businesses were able to reopen from Monday 13^th July with restrictions which banned any treatments to be carried out in the ‘high-risk zone’, which is the area directly in front of the face. 

All businesses will be required to operate in a Covid-secure way. This means undertaking risk assessments and following the guidelines set out by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), including wearing the appropriate PPE, social distancing, thorough cleaning, and operating by appointment-only. 

In today’s announcement, the Prime Minister also added that new powers will be given to local authorities to control and contain local outbreaks. This includes being able to close specific types of premises in a whole area if there is seen to be a risk of spreading the virus. 

Hilary Hall, chief executive of the NHBF said, “This is fantastic news for thousands of people in the beauty industry who have, up until now, been unsure about the future of their businesses. We have been working tirelessly with other industry organisations to get to this point, and to lobby for any further financial support needed. We must remind everyone working in close contact services to ensure they operate in a safe and secure way so that the industry doesn’t face any more closures.” 

The NHBF have recently written to the Chancellor for further financial support for the beauty sector which you can find here. 

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will be updating their ‘Safer workplaces’ guidelines to include this latest announcement. 

These rules apply to all beauty practitioners in England, including those working in salon spaces as well as freelancers, mobile operators and retail and session makeup artists. The NHBF continues to work with governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We will be updating our FAQs as soon as we can.