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Coronavirus: Sex during lockdown with someone outside your household is illegal from today

Young couple man and woman intimate relationship on bed feet
Sex between people from different households has been banned in England. (Getty)

Having sex in your own home with someone from a different household is illegal from today, after the government altered its coronavirus legislation.

At 11.30am on Monday, a change to the law was introduced that bans two people from different households in England gathering in an indoor, private place during the coronavirus lockdown.

The amendment to the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) Bill states: “No person may participate in a gathering which takes place in a public or private place indoors, and consists of two or more persons.”

Previously, going to another person’s home to have sex would have been a breach of coronavirus lockdown restrictions, but now both parties could be prosecuted under the law. Having sex in public is already illegal.

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Only those with a “reasonable excuse” are permitted to meet in a private place.

The amended bill reads: “No person may, without reasonable excuse, stay overnight at any place other than the place where they are living.”

This differs from the previous legislation, which prohibited people from leaving their home at all without a reasonable excuse.

Anyone breaking the law can be fined £100, halved to £50 if paid within 14 days.

Human rights barrister Adam Wagner tweeted on Sunday: “I can’t believe I’m about to tweet this.

“From tomorrow sex between two (or more) people in a private place who do not live in the same household is a ‘gathering’ between 2 or more people and is therefore illegal.”

However, one lawyer pointed out a potential loophole with the legislation.

George Pertez QC tweeted that his reading of the law indicated that someone could potentially have sex with an escort in their home, as it might be deemed legal for work purposes.

He said it was “unacceptable” to publish the new legislation at just 14 hours’ notice and that having no vote in Parliament on the amendment was “very likely unlawful”.

The amendments detail how lockdown has been eased, with people in England now allowed to meet up outside in groups of up to six.

The regulations define a gathering as “when two or more people are present together in the same place in order to engage in any form of social interaction with each other, or to undertake any other activity with each other”.

The government’s official guidelines for lockdown state: “Right now you are only allowed to gather outdoors with people you do not live with.

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“Seeing people outside, rather than inside, while obeying the ‘two metre rule’, greatly reduces the risk of transmission.

“Close contact with people from other households means a much higher risk of transmission, and according to the scientific advice, we cannot safely allow people to see people they don’t live with indoors without the risk that the virus will spread.”

People cannot participate in a gathering indoors unless they are: attending a funeral; an elite athlete or coach of an elite athlete; facilitating a house move; meeting for necessary work purposes; providing care for a vulnerable person; providing emergency assistance or providing childcare.

Coronavirus: what happened today

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