Schools and outside meetings set to return from March under Boris Johnson’s lockdown easing plan

Children will be sent back to school and adults given new freedoms to meet outside from early March under government plans to loosen lockdown.

Boris Johnson is expected outline the changes in an address to the nation later this month, having said on Saturday that he was cautiously “optimistic” about falling cases.

Under current government thinking, from March 8 people will be able to meet one friend from outside their household for a coffee on a park bench or picnic outside.

But the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reports that mixing inside and larger gatherings will remain against the rules.

At around the same time, children are expected to be sent back to school – with debate continuing in Whitehall about whether primary and secondary schools will go back at the same time.

The prime minister said on Saturday he “very much hoped” also to reopen schools at the same time but he also said the government wanted to monitor any changes to the “R” rate before unlocking too much.

The planned relaxation is likely to provide comfort to some of Mr Johnson’s Tory backbenchers, who have been lobbying for restrictions to be lifted on the back of the vaccination programme.

But scientific advisors have been urging caution and say lifting all restrictions now would invite another wave of infections.

In letter to the prime minister, the leaders of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) group of lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs said the “tremendous pace” of the vaccine rollout meant restrictions in England should begin easing.

The letter was organised by outspoken lockdown critics Mark Harper and Steve Baker, and claimed the backing of 63 Conservative MPs.

They said schools “must” return from 8 March and called for pubs and restaurants to reopen by Easter.

But speaking on Sunday morning foreign secretary Dominic Raab rejected calls for an “arbitrary commitment” to lift all coronavirus restrictions by the end of April.

“We do need to be very careful how we proceed. We have made good progress. We don’t want to see that unravel because we go too far too quick,” Mr Raab said.

“We are not making what feels to me like a slightly arbitrary commitment without reviewing the impact that measures have had on the transmission and the hospital admissions of the virus.

“I don’t think you can set though an arbitrary target and not be evidence-led, which is why the review point on February 22 is so important.”

It comes after the cross party Treasury select committee called for the government to spell out a “plan for taking the country out of lockdown”.

The influential group of MPs said explaining the criteria for lifting lockdown would give more confidence to people and businesses.

“After almost a year of restrictions, people and businesses need confidence that the Government has a clear route out of the crisis,” said the committee’s chair Mel Stride.

“To provide this confidence, the Government must set out the criteria for how and when it will lift lockdown restrictions.

“This should be supported by combined economic and epidemiological modelling undertaken by the Treasury, showing how it would best optimise health and economic outcomes.”