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Shops and police must help enforce English face mask rules, says minister

<span>Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images</span>
Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

Retailers and police must both play a role in enforcing the use of face coverings by shoppers in England, a cabinet minister has said after officers said the law would be unenforceable.

The environment secretary, George Eustice, also defended the government’s U-turn on making face coverings compulsory, saying its approach had been “evolving” and noting that it advised the public to wear them in crowded places in May to limit the spread of coronavirus.

The rules on English shops will come into force on 24 July, over a month after face coverings became a requirement on public transport in England on 15 June. Anyone who disregards the rule for shops can be fined up to £100 by the police, reduced to £50 if they pay within 14 days.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, will officially announce the measures in the Commons on Tuesday afternoon.

Eustice’s comments came as as the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF) said it would be “nigh-on impossible” for officers to enforce the new rule.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday, Eustice said the move to make face coverings mandatory in shops had “been under consideration in recent days”.

The government’s plan was revealed on Monday night, a day after Michael Gove said he did not think the coverings should be compulsory. The senior minister said that it was “best to trust people’s common sense” during an interview.

On Monday morning, Boris Johnson said the government would make an announcement on the issue in the coming days while the prime minister urged the public to wear a face covering in shops.

“I don’t think it’s very helpful to get too bothered about who said what when,” Eustice said in defence of the inconsistent messages on the issue. “[The government] hadn’t made a decision yet so wasn’t ready to announce it.”

Although he said face coverings would not be compulsory for shop staff, Eustice added that retailers “will have a role to play” in ensuring shoppers wear them.

“With all of our laws there’s an element of policing by consent and so we need the public to play their part and to abide by these restrictions,” he said. “Of course retailers have been very responsible in the way they’re approaching this challenge, they will have a role to play in making sure there’s compliance. But when it comes to that final sanction of issuing a penalty, that is something that only the police can do.”

However, Ken Marsh – chairman of the MPF, which represents rank-and file officers in the Met – told the programme that he believed depending on police to enforce the rules was “absolutely absurd” and that shopkeepers needed “to step up to the plate and take some responsibility”.

“It will be nigh-on impossible for enforcement because you won’t have a police officer on every shop door because there isn’t enough of us,” he said.

“If a shopkeeper calls the police because someone hasn’t got a mask on, they haven’t got the power to detain them so that person can just walk away. [Shopkeepers] can quite easily put signs up on their doors ‘No mask on, no entry, this is private property’ … this cannot all be laid on the shoulders of the police yet again.”

Sadiq Khan said he welcomed the government’s U-turn, adding that he believed those in the capital would “by and large follow the rules”.

The London mayor told the programme: “I don’t think you’ll come to many examples of the police having to enforce the rules. The problem is not the issue of enforcement, the problem is the mixed messages and the confused communications.”