From Wednesday 2 December, the national restrictions will be lifted but a regional tiered approach will apply in England.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has today released a table of areas which have been allocated to one of three tiers based on current coronavirus data.

‘Tier 3’ – very high alert level

• North West: Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen
• North East: Tees Valley Combined Authority, North East Combined Authority
• Yorkshire and The Humber: The Humber, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire
• East Midlands: Leicester and Leicestershire, Derby and Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
• West Midlands: Birmingham and Black Country, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull,
• South East: Slough, Kent & Medway
• South West: Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset.

‘Tier 2’ – high alert level

• North West: Liverpool City Region, Cheshire (including Warrington), Cumbria
• Yorkshire and The Humber: York and North Yorkshire
• East Midlands: Northamptonshire, Rutland
• West Midlands: Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, Herefordshire, Worcestershire
• London
• East of England: Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes, Essex, Thurrock and Southend on Sea, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Hertfordshire, Suffolk
• South East: Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton, East and West Sussex, and Brighton and Hove, Surrey, Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell Forest, Windsor and Maidenhead, West Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire
• South West: Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset, Dorset, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Swindon, Devon.

‘Tier 1’ – medium alert level

• Isle of Wight, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.

You can also check which tier your local area falls into by using your postcode via the government’s site.

What do the varying tier levels mean?

‘Tier 1’: People should work from home if they can do so. ‘Rule of Six’ applies both indoors and outdoors. Table service only, for premises that serve alcohol. Close between 11pm and 5am (hospitality venues in airports, ports, on transport services and in motorway service areas are exempt). Orders to be stopped at 10pm with 11pm closure.

‘Tier 2’: Hospitality settings that serve alcohol must close, unless operating as restaurants. Hospitality venues can only serve alcohol with substantial meals. You must not socialise with anyone you do not live with or who is not in your support bubble in any indoor setting, whether at home or in a public place. Rule of six applies.

‘Tier 3’: Hospitality will close except for delivery, drive-through and takeaway, hotels and other accommodation providers must close (except for specific exemptions, such as people staying for work purposes, where people are attending a funeral, or where they cannot return home). Indoor entertainment venues such as cinemas, theatres and bowling allies must also close. Elite sport will be played without spectators. Organised outdoor sport can resume, but the government advises against higher risk contact sports.

See the government’s tier information for more on the restrictions.

The government will review the allocations every 14 days, with the first review to complete by 16 December.

Special measures apply over Christmas, allowing three households to form a ‘Christmas bubble’ between 23 and 27 December.

Hancock said: “Thanks to the hard work and sacrifice made by people up and down the country, we are able to move out of national lockdown and into more targeted local, tiered restrictions.

“I know for those of you faced with tier 3 restrictions this will be a particularly difficult time but I want to reassure you that we’ll be supporting your areas with mass community testing and extra funding.

“By following the rules together we can get out of these tough measures.”