Who am I allowed to meet up with socially indoors?

You can only meet socially indoors with people who you live with (your household) and members of your extended household if you have formed one. As of 14 September, meetings or gatherings indoors even within your extended household must be limited to 6 people (not including any children aged under 11).

This applies in places like pubs and restaurants as well as in people’s homes.

What is an extended household?

Up to four households are able to join together to form an extended household. This means all the people living in these separate households become part of one extended household for the purposes of the coronavirus restrictions.

They will enjoy the same legal freedoms people living in individual households currently have – such as being able to meet indoors, have physical contact and stay in each other’s homes – other than that as of 14 September, meetings or gatherings indoors even within your extended household must be limited to 6 people (not including any children aged under 11). This applies in places like pubs and restaurants as well as in people’s homes.

Indoor gatherings are limited to six people – is that an absolute limit?

Children aged under 11 are not included – so a gathering could for example include four adults, two teenage children and any number of younger children under 11.

Carers – whether they are care workers or unpaid carers – do not form part of your extended household and do not count towards the limit of 6 people over 11 in a group. However, they can continue to provide you with whatever support you need, and go anywhere with you if you need their support.

Finally, there are slightly different rules for larger households that are themselves made up of more than 6 people aged 11 or over.

There are already over 6 people aged 11 or over in my household – are we exempt from the rule that only 6 people can gather together?

To a large extent, yes. Clearly, all members of the household need to be able to be at home together, and there is no public health benefit in preventing the members of a household from being able to go out places together. Therefore, a household of (say) 8 people aged 11 or over could go to a restaurant, café, bar or pub together as a group.

However, if some members of that household wish to meet up with other people in their extended household, each gathering should contain no more than 6 people aged 11 or over.

For example, if a family of 6 people all aged 11 or over were in an extended household arrangement with their neighbour who lived alone, and wanted to go out for a meal with the neighbour, only a maximum of five people from that family would be allowed to go.

I have a booking for more than six people – can it still go ahead?

Any group bookings that will not be permitted in future, including for travel, visitor attractions, restaurants or elsewhere, must be postponed or, where possible, proceed in line with new guidance (i.e. as a group of up to 6 people not including children under 11, and made up exclusively of people from your household or extended household).

What is the purpose of having an extended household?

The idea is to allow families or close friends who have been separated over these last few months to reconnect with each other and enjoy each other’s close company once again.

These extended household arrangements also support caring arrangements. In particular, they may help working parents with informal childcare, as more businesses reopen their doors and return to formalised working arrangements and they may help people with other caring responsibilities.

Is there a limit on the number of people who can be in an extended household?

No. There is no limit on the number of people who can be in an extended household, providing they all live in the households being joined together.

Up to four households are able to join together to form an extended household and only one extended household can be formed. This includes two existing extended households (of two households) joining together to make an extended household of four households.

However, as of 14 September, any one meeting or gathering indoors even within your extended household must be limited to 6 people (not including any children aged under 11). This applies in places like pubs and restaurants as well as in people’s homes.

These limits on the number of households and meeting sizes will help to prevent the virus spreading.

How do I choose which other household(s) to pair with?

Choosing which household(s) to go into an extended household with is an important decision, and for many people this may be a difficult one.

There is no right or wrong way to decide. However, in other countries where this approach has been followed, people have found it helpful to:

Think about who is in the most need of support, rather than just trying to decide whose company they have most missed.

Think about the risks – people who were previously shielding can form an extended household, but this will increase their risk of being exposed to coronavirus.

Think about the consequences – if anyone in the extended household develops symptoms of coronavirus, everyone will be asked to self-isolate at least until the outcome of a test is known. For some people this will have a greater consequence than for others, and needs to be thought about carefully.

What happens if I can’t agree with the people I live with about who we should pair up with?

Everyone living in the households which form the extended household must belong to the same extended household. So all the adults in all the households must agree to the decision to create the extended household.

Can I break up my existing extended household so I can join a different one?

No. Once you have agreed and formed an extended household with another household, you can’t switch to join together with someone else instead. This is to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus.

Can I go into an extended household with a household in England?

Yes, but the arrangements will need to comply with the rules in both countries. The rules that apply in England are available here.

I live in a house of mixed occupancy – does everyone in the house need to agree to be part of the same extended household?

No, in circumstances like this you each form separate households. However where people have some private space but share facilities, such as bathrooms, living rooms or kitchens, coronavirus could spread throughout the house - and then ownwards again to your respective households.

So you should be aware that if you all form extended households you are putting yourselves (and others) at increased risk. Our advice is that you should think very carefully about forming an extended household in these circumstances.

What about people in assisted living?

If you do not live in a house of mixed occupancy then your assisted living arrangement is considered a single household, and each person within it cannot form their own extended households.

However, where care and support is needed, you are still entitled to have people visit you indoors to give that care and support. So, for example if you have a child with learning disabilities who lives in an assisted living arrangement, and who would normally return home on weekends as part of their routine to support their health and wellbeing, this could still take place. It does not need to involve the formation of an extended household.

I share parental responsibility for a child with someone I don’t live with – can they be treated as part of both extended households?

Where parental responsibility is shared, existing arrangements can continue and the child can move between both parents, and therefore between both parents’ households.

The change to regulations regarding extended households should not have an impact on this, and the child should be considered to be part of the household or extended household of the parent they are with at any particular time – in other words if either or both parents form an extended household with a household which does not include the other parent, the child could continue to move freely between the parents, and be part of both extended households (i.e. the child does not have to socially distance within the extended household, whichever parent they are with).