The government has issued new guidance for the national lockdown in England, which comes into force on Tuesday 5 January.

The guidance states that:

• Outdoor exercise is still permitted but should be limited to once per day.
• You can exercise in a public outdoor place:
  • by yourself.
  • with the people you live with.
  • with your support bubble (if you are legally permitted to form one).
  • in a childcare bubble where providing childcare.
  • or, when on your own, with one person from another household.
• Outdoor exercise should be done locally wherever possible, but you can travel a short distance within your area to do so if necessary (for example, to access an open space). If you need to travel you should stay local – meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live – and look to reduce the number of journeys you make overall.
• All outdoor sports clubs, centres, venues and facilities will close, alongside indoor facilities.
• Organised outdoor sport for disabled people is allowed to continue, and we will provide further detail on this once we have information from the Government.

All organised orienteering activities, including events, competitions, leagues and coaching, are therefore suspended with immediate effect (except for orienteering for disabled people, on which we will provide further information in due course).

POCs and VOCS

POCs and VOCs can still be used for individual exercise. Courses should be registered with British Orienteering as activities to provide insurance cover for the club and planner. They must not be used for competitions or leagues.

We would recommend that you add any courses on to the British Orienteering POC portal via your club POC Manager or contact nweir@britishorienteering.org.uk

The full national lockdown: stay at home guidelines are available on the UK government website.

Guidance for orienteering clubs

Up to date support and guidance for UK orienteering clubs is available via our COVID page.

The First Minister has today announced that Tier 4 restrictions have been brought forward to the 20 December 2020.

However, the guidance that the Welsh Executive has published is clear that people who live in Tier 4 areas must not travel out of their Tier 4 area other than for legally permitted reasons, and that people who live in Tier 4 areas must not leave or be outside of their home except where they have a specific purpose or ‘reasonable excuse’.

For those living in a Tier 4 area, unlimited outdoor exercise is still permitted, including in parks and the countryside. Exercise must be alone, or in a public outdoor place with your household, support bubble, or one other person. Exercise should be done locally wherever possible, but you can travel a short distance within your Tier 4 area to do so if necessary (for example, to access an open space).

Orienteers are obviously required to comply with the new restrictions and with other government guidance.

British Orienteering will the guidance as further details of the new restrictions become available.

#UnitingTheMovement is a 10-year vision to transform lives and communities through sport and physical activity.

Helping grassroots sport and physical activity recover from the effects of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and investing in tackling the challenges of the next decade are the cornerstones of the new 10-year strategy.

Launched today via an online event today (Tuesday 26 January 2021), #UnitingTheMovement runs through to 2031 but is most immediately focused on helping the people and organisations delivering grassroots sport and physical activity to cope with the pressure of the pandemic.

Following the confirmation by the Prime Minister yesterday (23 November) that England will return to a three-tier system of regional restrictions once the current period of national restrictions ends at 00:01 on 2 December.  The Board of British Orienteering met on 27 November and have agreed that: 

From Wednesday, 2 December 2020, orienteering events using electronic punching and timing equipment can take place providing that they follow these guidelines.

People are advised not to travel into or out of tier 3 areas (very high alert) in order to participate or volunteer in an orienteering activity or event.

This does not apply to travel where it is necessary to enable supervised coaching sessions and competitions for under-18s or activities for disabled people.

Anyone organising or taking part in an orienteering event or activity must ensure that they are aware of the local COVID alert level both in their home area and at the intended venue for their activity, and act in line with the restrictions which apply.

Further guidance will be published on Tuesday, 1 December 2020.