The Police and social distancing

The Police have now finally admitted that they do not have any powers to
enforce social distancing as social distancing are only guidelines and
are not law. Funny, that is something that most people new, but not the
police. Go figure. 

It does not matter if people knew or not, they still should follow the guidelines, to protect themselves and others..

It may for those who have wrongly been fined.

Wrongly fined..They can go to court and appeal any fine instead of paying it straight away regardless of it being related to the lockdown..Was the Police not given temporary powers, via the government, to impose the none social distancing and none essential travel.

Unfortunately most people who received these fines just pay them without question like most do. The fine I beleave was £60, but if it was paid within 14 days I beleave then it was £30. At a time when people were not working it is appauling that the police would overstep their authority in such a way. Those that did challenge their fines in the magistrates court were found guilty because the magistrates will always beleave a polce officer over a member of the public. It's not about the rights or the wrongs of social distances, It's about the police inforcing goverment guidlines which were never law. The college of policing have now informed all cheif constables in England that they cannot inforce goverment guidlines as guidlines are not law. It only applies to England and no where else.

Not about Dogging so I'm going to move it to a more appropriate area of the forum.

And for the record- I personally think a £30 fine is pretty meagre compared to risking other peoples lives knowingly like that...but that's just me.

I also hear people make similar technical arguments about other offenses etc- the bottom line is that if you don't break the rules, you wont need to worry about what is legally enforceable and what isn't. 

I think you'll find that the fines that have been imposed up until today have been for breaking the law relating to non-essential travel and for being outside without good reason (daily exercise, shopping, travel to work, etc) and not for being too close to another person. The situation has changed from today because we are now effectively allowed to be outside permanently and therefore social distancing becomes vitally important, but the police have realised that they cannot enforce the 2m guideline.

Anybody with any sense will make every effort to keep 2m apart, so the enforcement argument should become irrelevant.

It's a shame that some maybe missing the point of the post, but that's life. I will leave it there.