GC 2021/0063 makes changes to the gathering rules, but only in relation to “gathering for the purposes of support” (a.k.a. support bubbles).
The odd reference to “within their own, or one other household” is removed. A person covered by paragraph 13 may gather “with one other household” (para.12), so long as most of the Part 4 conditions are complied with (discussed in my earlier note), but also subject to specific conditions laid out in paragraph 13.
Paragraph 13 is partly clarificatory, but also makes some substantial changes. In terms of clarification, it now defines X households (being lone adult households entitled to use these provisions), and Y households (being one other household of any size, “provided that every member is usually resident in the Y household”). This “usually resident” is a limit on Y households, not X households. Other rules concerning leaving the house etc should mean that in most cases, every member of a household is usually resident – so what does this limit? One possibility is that households where a separated parent may on occasion have a child (as envisaged by para.5(1)(h) and (i) of the movement GCs) are not eligible to act as a Y household because one member (the child) is not “usually” resident there.
If right, this does raise an odd outcome. The X household is a single adult with 2 children. The Y household is a larger family consisting of the other parent of the 2 children, and one set of their grandparents. The children can pass between the two households. The X household is entitled to bubble with a *different* household (so long as it does not have anyone who is not normally resident), but not with the household containing one parent and their grandparents.
The lack of reciprocity I criticised earlier has been addressed – X can gather in the home of Y, for instance, but also “vice versa” (para.13.3). A car share as “necessary” for the gathering to occur is permissible – a useful addition allowing for instance X households to be collected by a member of Y household to be taken to the Y home (para.13.5). The exclusive nature of the X/Y relationship is made clear, but there remains no mechanism for discontinuing an X/Y relationship and starting another one at a later date (para.13.6).
Additionally, the focus on the homes of X and Y is diluted slightly. A gathering “may be within the home of either X household or Y household or outdoors” (para.13.4). So for the purposes of the gathering, the group of X+Y may meet outdoors. The restrictions on movement, however, do not generally allow a person to leave their home just to be outdoors – the nearest is the right to exercise. This has not been amended and it remains “to undertake exercise alone or with other members of his household” (para.5(1)(d); and a linked household is not part of your own household). The support bubble reason for leaving home is also unchanged, and refers explicitly to leaving “in order to visit a person within their own, or one other household for the purposes of support, as provided in paragraphs 12 and 13 [of the gatherings direction]” (para.5(1)(kk)).
It would have been better to amend para.5(1)(kk) to read “to visit a person outdoors, or within their own or one other household …”; but the explicit cross-reference in (kk) to paragraph 12 and 13 may be useful here. We could argue that the paragraph is intended to give effect to the rules in paragraph 12 and 13, and so should be read against their clear textual meaning to do so. If that is right, then a meeting outside between X and Y households is permitted even if mobile.
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