Wetherspoons customers to give name and phone number each time they go to the pub

Drinkers visiting Wetherspoons will be asked to give their contact details every time they go to the pub.

The popular chain reopens its pubs on Saturday, and has revealed it will give customers a short form to fill out with their name and telephone number every time they visit.

Keeping a guest register is recommended under the Government’s coronavirus guidelines as it will help the NHS’ test and trace system track down any outbreaks.

It is not a legal requirement to hand over details – so customers could technically refuse to do it – but it is strongly encouraged to help in the national fight against the virus.

Visitors will also be asked to record their arrival and departure times, and then drop their form in a dedicated box when they leave the pub.

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A Wetherspoons spokesperson said the forms will be stored confidentially for 21 days, after which they will be disposed of.

They added: ‘Wetherspoon will introduce NHS Test and Trace in all its pubs in England from reopening on Saturday, July 4.

‘Wetherspoon is to ask customers to fill out a short form, each time they visit, which contains their name and telephone number.

‘Customers will be asked to record their arrival and departure times, and to leave the form in a box as they exit.

‘The forms will be stored confidentially for 21 days. After that, they can be safely disposed of.

‘Whereas it is not a legal requirement to provide this information, the government, NHS and Wetherspoon are very keen for customers to cooperate.’

If someone who you were in the pub at the same time as tests positive for Covid-19, NHS teams will contact you and ask where you were sitting.

If you were close to the person who tested positive, you may be asked to self-isolate for 14 days.

It comes after the pub chain revealed last week what measures it will be enforcing as part of its ‘new normal’ operations.

There will be supermarket-style queues to get in as there are limited numbers, customers will be encouraged to use phone apps to order and pay for drinks, and bars will be fitted with perspex screens to protect its staff.

There will be hand sanitiser stations around the pubs and floor stickers will indicate a one-way system for moving around the building.

Tables will be spaced one metre apart at a minimum, following the Government’s reduction of the two-metre rule, and opening times and menus could vary to usual.

Some pubs have said they will be handing out one-time-use menus which customers can take away or dispose of at the venue.

Wetherspoons staff will be undergoing temperature checks and filling in health questionnaires before each shift and could be wearing masks, gloves, and eye protection.

When they serve drinks, they will only be touching the bottom of the glass in order to avoid transmission via the surface.

But the Government has not yet said whether there will be a limit on the number of drinks one person can buy.

A spokesman for Wetherspoons said staff will ensure ‘customers are served responsibly’, although they hinted there would be no limit on the number of orders a customer can make.

‘Before lockdown you couldn’t order three pints for yourself at one time and that will be the case now,’ they said.

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