Taxi Driver Online

Face masks to be compulsory on public transport in Wales

People in Wales must wear face coverings on public transport - including taxis - from July 27. The announcement was made by First Minister Mark Drakeford at the Welsh Government's daily press conference at 12.30pm on Monday. Follow live updates from that here.

He said: "It will become mandatory for people to wear a three-layer face covering while travelling [on public transport] – this includes taxis."

The Welsh Government has been under significant pressure to change its policy on face masks with many countries in Europe making them mandatory in public places very early in the crisis.

Scotland introduced mandatory face coverings on public transport on June 22 with exceptions only for children under five and people with certain medical conditions. In England, masks are mandatory on public transport and a formal review is underway on making masks compulsory in shops.

Mr Drakeford said: "For the sake of simplicity and consistency, as well as being part of our plan to help reduce the risk of transmission while on public transport where it is not always possible to maintain a 2m physical distance, it will become mandatory for people to wear a three-layer face covering while travelling – this includes taxis.

"The requirement to wear a face covering on public transport will come into effect from 27 July."

The First Minister said he was not making face coverings mandatory in other public places but this may change if there is a spike in cases.

"At this point in time, when the prevalence of coronavirus is low, we are not mandating the use of face coverings in other public places, but many people may choose to wear them," he said.

"Our advice may change if cases of coronavirus begin to increase and, where it is not possible for 2m to be maintained, some businesses may ask people to wear a face covering before they enter the premises.

The First Minister had previously been hesitant to introduce face coverings in Wales for a wide range of reasons including:

1. Fears over supply of masks to key workers.
2. People feeling over confident in masks and taking unnecessary risks.
3. Concerns over the quality of covering people would use.

Mr Drakeford added: "I want to be clear that coronavirus has not gone away. Every day, we hear reports from around the world of countries, which have relaxed their guard – and their restrictions – only to see a resurgence of the virus and new lockdowns being put in place."

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IDFIMH

Interesting that the policy will be face masks as used in medical situations, rather than just face coverings.

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IDFIMH

So Private hire are exempt ???

Doubt it.

I'm assuming that by taxis they mean both hackney carriages and private hire.

Although looking at the guidance it doesn't define taxis as I have above.

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IDFIMH

They may ‘mean’ P/H as well but as it stands there is no way they could make a prosecution stick.

Just like the SNP, Wales needs to have slightly different rules to make them look different and justify the existence of the parliament and devolution there.

So although in international terms there's not a lot of difference between England, Wales and Scotland, they need these small differences to make them look different and justify themselves, and also to drive a wedge between them and England, thus feeding their indepedence agenda.

Think it's also what Freud called the 'Narcissism of small differences':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissis ... ifferences

In fact there's also a lot of that kind of stuff in taxi licensing generally, but in that case it's between local authorities rather than countries (and, of course, at the national level Wales and Scotland need their own trade licensing sytems, while in many ways they're very similar, and no real reason to have three different systems anyway.)

And indeed the face coverings required in Wales don't need to be medical-grade mask, they just need to be three-layered (as far as I can tell), which underlines how minor the actual difference is.

Check out the video here, which says that a cotton t-shirt is about the correct thickness for making a three-layer covering, while a wooly jumper is too thick, socks too small and kitchen roll is too flimsy

https://gov.wales/how-make-3-layer-face-covering


Where did you find the definition of taxi, or whatever? I could only find the press release.

But I'm pretty sure 'taxi' is meant in the everyday sense to mean both sides of the trade.

The taxi guidance was issued the same day under a more general guidance.

https://gov.wales/travelling-safely-dur ... ublic-html

When I said it didn't define taxis as I did in my previous post, I meant no where in guidance does it define taxis as anything.

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IDFIMH

I wonder how the police are going to interpret this ‘law’? As Chester borders Wales (our Townhall is just over a mile away from the border) does this mean we have to put a mask on if we take a passenger over the border or does it just mean if the journey starts in Wales ?