Since July 24th, it is mandatory for store visitors to wear face coverings. But this is just one of over 200 steps included in the UK Government Covid-19 safety guidelines for retailers! To help retail businesses, we have compiled a Covid safety inspection checklist based on those guidelines as of 23rd July 2020. You can download our app and view the guidelines in an easily digestible checklist format.

Of course, each business needs to adapt it to their own circumstances, location and applicable legal requirements, but it provides a good starting point. Here’s a summary of the 200 items that need to be thought about.
Main Covid safety checks for UK retailers
The retail guidance covers “shops and branches”, which covers all physical locations and shops like food/clothing/homeware stores etc., pharmacies, indoors & outdoors markets, art galleries, post/bank branches and similar.
1. Risk Assessment
Each business is expected to conduct a self-assessment of risk to determine how to maintain the 2m social distancing for staff and customers, and implement additional mitigating measures such as information, disinfection, hand-washing, physical separation. Where such measures are not possible, businesses should consider discontinuing certain activities deemed too risky.
Businesses have a duty to inform employees about the fact that the assessment was done, on the website and displaying a signed notice. Employees should also be made aware of the ways they can “whistleblow”: report risks internally and externally.
2. Keeping staff and customers safe in stores
The government advises over 35 considerations for every store, including:
- Minimise number of persons indoors, reduce possible congestion points, especially at entrance/exit, manage queuing
- Provide handwashing and sanitation facilities
- Minimise touching of products
- Inform and guide visitors with signage and specifically trained staff
- Maximise ventilation, air circulation and filtering
- Increased social distancing, sanitation and safety communication in customer toilets
- Waste collection and disposal
3. Deciding who should work
Who should come work onsite, and when? How to ensure the welfare and inclusion of staff working remotely? How to determine who is considered vulnerable, and how to allow them to work safely? How to plan around people who become sick on are required to self-isolate? How to ensure equality and non-discrimination in all this? These are just some of the things employers need to think about.
4. Social distancing for employees
Once employees arrive onsite, how to minimise the virus transmission risks?
- arriving and leaving work: stagger times, reduce congestion, markings and one-way flow, encourage alternative transport options like cycling, minimise touch…
- moving indoors: reduce movement, restrict access to some areas, signage for one-way flow, limit usage of lifts, take into account staff with disabilities…
- workstations: space out desks, reconfigure floor space, introduce physical barriers…
- Meetings: minimise meetings, minimise the number of people in the same room, hold outdoors or keep distance
- Common areas: stagger break times, create safe outdoors areas, more tables for less face-to-face sitting, reconfigure locker rooms etc
- Handling of goods: minimise handover, organise pick-up and drop-off with minimal in-person contact with staggered hours etc
- Incident reporting and management: review safety and emergency procedures, review staff responsible for them…
5. Cleaning and sanitising the workplace
Things to consider include improving ventilation systems, increase cleaning and sanitation, frequent disinfection of high-touch areas, clearing the space at the end of the day, improve waste management, ensure hygiene and handwashing practices with signage/training/checks, minimise customer fitting rooms where possible, enable contactless payments, refunds and returns, find ways to isolate or disinfect merchandise touched by customers…
6. PPE and face coverings
Wearing face coverings in stores is mandatory since July 24th. Businesses should make it possible for staff to wear face coverings, and recommend the safe way to do it.
Businesses also need to take reasonable steps to encourage customer compliance, for example through in-store communications or notices at the entrance. However they are not in charge of providing masks or enforcing compliance. Police can issue fines if required.
7. Workforce management
- Keep people within the same team or shift to avoid too many contacts
- Keep a record of all shift patterns for 21 days in case of NHS Track and Trace requests. Ensure employment records are up-to-date in case health authorities request data.
- Have a plan in case of outbreak, and contact the appropriate health authorities if there is more than 1 case of Covid in the workplace
- Minimise work-related travel, encourage walking/cycling, inform employees about use of masks in public transport
- procedures to minimise person-to-person contact for deliveries, and maintain consistent pairing of workers, minimise payment contact
- Ensure good communication with staff and their representatives on new workplace procedures, provide training, get feedback to avoid unforeseen impact on workers. Consider workers who may not speak English as their first language
8. Inbound and outbound goods
To minimise personal contact, consider reducing delivery frequency, arrange scheduled pick-up/drop-off, get workers to load good alone where possible or keep the same teams, encourage drivers to remain in vehicles…
GoAudits Inspections app to help you remain compliant
Download the GoAudits app to see the full updated guidelines in an easy checklist format.
Our app enables you to conduct frequent compliance checks, without creating significant admin burdens. You can easily create Covid checklists adapted to your particular needs, based on government recommendations.
These checks can then be done by staff at set intervals. In case of any issue or non-compliance, you will get immediate visibility, via instant reports or dashboards. The due diligence evidence can be easily shared in case of inspection by Environmental Health officers. The digital checklists can be easily updated anytime as the situation and legal requirements evolve.
We have helped dozens of retail businesses in the UK in these challenging times. Get in touch and we will set you up for a free trial!