This guidance is for people who work in or run outdoor working environments.
Working outdoors includes people in:

• construction
• energy and utilities
• farming and agriculture (including seasonal labour)
• forestry
• waste management and other infrastructure
• railway services
• street and highway services.

The document is to help employers, employees and the self-employed in the UK understand how to work safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping as many people as possible 2 metres apart from those they do not live with.
It is stressed that the government is clear that workers should not be forced into an unsafe workplace.
The guidance
The document sets out guidance on how to work safely. It gives practical considerations of how this can be applied in the workplace. It is advised that each business will need to translate this into the specific actions it needs to take depending on the nature of their business, including the size and type of business, how it is organised, operated, managed and regulated.
The guidance does not supersede any legal obligations relating to health and safety, employment or equalities and it is important that businesses or employers continue to comply with existing obligations, including those relating to individuals with protected characteristics. It contains non-statutory guidance to take into account when complying with these existing obligations. When considering how to apply this guidance, take into account agency workers, contractors and other people, as well as your employees.
To help decide on which actions to take, an appropriate COVID-19 risk assessment must be carried out, just as you would for other health and safety related hazards. This risk assessment must be done in consultation with unions or workers.
The sections of this guidance cover the following:

1. Thinking about risk: Managing risk; Sharing the results of your risk assessment.
2. Who should go to work: Protecting people who are at higher risk; People who need to self-isolate; Equality in the workplace.
3. Social distancing at work: Coming to work and leaving work; Moving around buildings and worksites; Making the main workplace safe for people who work statically; Meetings; Common areas; Accidents, security and other incidents.
4. Managing your customers, visitors and contractors: Manage contacts; Providing and explaining available guidance.
5. Cleaning and sanitising the workplace: Before reopening; Keeping your workplace clean; Hygiene - handwashing, sanitation facilities and toilets; Changing rooms and showers; Handling equipment, materials, waste, and onsite vehicles.
6. Personal protective equipment (PPE) and face coverings: Face coverings.
7. Managing your workforce: Shift patterns and working groups; Work-related travel; Communications and training.
8. Inbound and outbound goods: Maintain social distancing and avoid surface transmission when goods enter and leave the site especially in high volume situations, for example builders’ yard or despatch areas.

Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires employers to conduct suitable and sufficient risk assessments covering risks to employees who are at work and also risks to non-employees arising from their operations and to make and give effect to appropriate arrangements for planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review. Given that existing risk assessments may not cover Covid-19 hazards in sufficient detail, employers may wish to develop a specific risk assessment as part of their reoccupation planning. They must also consider how the key findings and controls from the risk assessment are effectively communicated to staff and other interested parties and how they are implemented.
In terms of topic areas, a reoccupation risk assessment might cover the following:

• how employees and contractors can safely enter premises that may have been closed for a number of weeks to prepare the site for reoccupation
• how to safely restart equipment and machinery that has been de-energised or just out of use for a period of time
• how social distancing measures will be maintained (especially around entrances, lifts and other common areas)
• the provision of adequate hand washing and welfare facilities
• cleaning operations (in the context of Covid-19)
• whether further training is required both in relation to Covid-19 and in relation to routine operations that may have become unfamiliar to staff due to a period away from the workplace (and how this will be delivered).

There may also be specific risks, which are relevant to each of the activities outlined below, and for which a more detailed assessment of risks and controls will be required. 
For your risk assessment or advice on your risk assessment, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Stay Safe

Here at CoreGenic, we are determined to help businesses get back to work.  The attached guidance is issued jointly by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Public Health Wales (PHW), Public Health Agency (PHA) Northern Ireland, Health Protection Scotland (HPS), Public Health Scotland, Public Health England and NHS England as official guidance.
It is noted that the guidance is of a general nature and that an employer should consider the specific conditions of each individual place of work and comply with all applicable legislation, including the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Having assessed the available evidence and feedback received from guidance users, PHE have updated sections to improve the guidance and ensure that it continues to make recommendations that will help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and keep people safe.
Main changes to the guidance are:

• To clearly explain the PPE required for different common clinical scenarios, 3 new tables have been added - one for hospitals, one for primary care, outpatient and community and social care, and one for ambulance, paramedics and pharmacy staff.
• An additional, fourth table describes when to use PPE for all patient encounters (not just patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19) at a time when there is sustained community transmission of COVID-19, as is currently occurring in the UK, and the likelihood of any patient having coronavirus infection is raised.
• The guidance explains that in some circumstances PPE can be worn for an entire session (such as a ward round) and does not need to be changed between each patient.
• Patient contact is now defined as being within 2 metres (rather than within 1 metre) of a patient, which is more precautionary and is consistent with the distancing recommendations used elsewhere.
• Hand-washing advice has been updated to include washing of forearms, when forearms have been exposed or may have been exposed to respiratory droplets or other body fluids.
• FFP2 and N95 respirators may be used for some aerosol-generating procedures if FFP3 respirators are not available. FFP3 respirators offer a slightly higher level of protection than FFP2 respirators.
• Advice on re-usable PPE components, including the need to refer to manufacturer’s guidance on decontamination.
• Recommendations about the use of facemasks by patients.
• General formatting improvements to make it easier to access different sections of the guidance.
• Recommendation on the use of disposable fluid repellent coveralls as an alternative to long sleeved fluid repellent gowns for aerosol generating procedures or when working in higher risk acute areas. Staff need to be trained in the safe removal of coveralls.