Kate Nicholls: Industry needs to be squeaky clean to move forward

UK Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls has warned the industry to be “squeaky clean” over the issue of multiple households meeting in hospitality venues so it doesn’t get the blame for future spikes.

Speaking to MCA she said while there had been a “lot of focus on track and trace” the issue of multiple households coming together had been behind the “vectors of infection” in Greater Manchester, Leicester and parts of Scotland.

Though she said the rises in coronavirus cases weren’t specifically linked to gatherings in hospitality venues, she added that when the government is looking at the next steps for hospitality and what additional support it might offer, it was “going to be making sure we are abiding by the existing regulations.

“We are still at the point where you are only supposed to have two households together at any one time indoors, and six people from six different households outdoors,” she said.

“That is the next area which is going to come under scrutiny, to make sure our businesses are abiding by it and enforcing it, in order to move to the next phase.

“I would just urge people to think about that in terms of their training and to make sure we’ve got the two household rule [in place].

“We need to make sure hospitality is squeaky clean on that one so we don’t get the blame.”