Daily government advice on the Covid-19 lockdown routinely overstates the extent of restrictions on movement. Misconceptions about them are now firmly embedded in the national and police consciousness.

We have recently seen wrongful convictions under the Coronavirus Act, which applies only to those suspected of carrying the infection, and excessive and erroneous “enforcement” of children playing in their own front garden and of a young man cuffed for helping his mother.

Drones fly over parks, the Peak District and even back gardens. One chief constable tweeted that he might soon be directing his officers to rifle through shopping trolleys to check items.

A mounted police officer speaks to dog walkers on Primrose Hill, London, this week KIRSTY O'CONNOR/PA

The regulations that we are all now subject to — the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 — were brought into force