UK nightclubs to implement new health and safety regulations

UK nightclubs face imminent “financial armageddon” due to the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown and have put forward new health and safety regulations.

Owners of the clubs say 750,000 jobs are at risk in night-time industries unless the government supports the sector soon.

A group of venues said that they would make it compulsory for people to wear face masks, get their temperature checked at the door and have bouncers patrolling the dancefloor to make sure there is enough physical distance.

They also pledged more intense and frequent cleaning regimes and claimed that many of the venues are larger than pubs or restaurants that have been allowed to open.

According to the nightclubs, the regulations written by the Institute of Occupational Medicine would reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission to the “lowest practicable level”.

So far, the government has refused to allow late-night venues to reopen as they are places where outbreaks of coronavirus could easily appear.

The Night-Time Industries Association, which coordinated the report that included the new measures, claims that closely monitored clubbing would be safer than unlicensed events.

“Bearing in mind the behaviour we are witnessing in unregulated environments such as beaches, parks and raves, there is a strong argument to permit clubs to reopen, albeit under strict controls flowing from government guidance and individual risk assessments informed by other sectors,” it said.

Nightclub owners are “verging on insolvency”, the NTIA said, and many will not survive without some form of controlled reopening.