LOCKDOWN restrictions are easing and it seems that the confusion created by mixed messages isn't just an England-Wales issue.

During the daily Welsh Government coronavirus briefing this lunchtime, health minister Vaughan Gething declared that restrictions had not been lifted on golf courses in Wales, and that playing a round of golf "was not a permissible reason for leaving home".

Yet within the hour, the Welsh Government issued a statement on its website to the effect that golf clubs do not have to be closed.

"We have clarified that we do want to encourage people to exercise but exercise locally, so we are expecting a statement from Wales Golf imminently on the back of our clarification - because they may be minded to suggest to clubs that they can open so they can ensure that local members can play," Jason Thomas, director of the Welsh Government's Culture, Sport and Tourism department, told the Senedd's Culture, Welsh Language and Communications committee.

Confused? You may well be - and there are likely to be more occasions for befuddlement in the coming days and weeks as measures to ease the lockdown are introduced.

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Senedd Research - the research, analysis and information service for Members of the Senedd (latterly known as AMs) and their staff - has today published updated information on what we in Wales can venture outside to do, provided of course, that we observe the existing requirements of social distancing.

So, according to the information being provided to our elected Welsh Parliament representatives, we can now go outside to:

  • Shop for basic necessities;
  • Exercise locally;
  • Visit local health care services, including to give blood;
  • Provide care or help to a vulnerable person;
  • Deposit and withdraw money from banks;
  • Collect items purchased from a business allowed to be open;
  • Access recycling services;
  • Visit a library;
  • Attend a funeral if invited, and visit a cemetery, burial ground or garden of remembrance;
  • Meet a legal obligation to attend court, participate in legal proceedings, or satisfy bail conditions;
  • Travel to and from work, but only where it’s absolutely necessary and not possible to work from home; and
  • Leave the house to avoid injury, illness or a risk of harm caused by domestic abuse, or to access domestic abuse support services.

This is simple, straightforward stuff, though in what is likely to be from now on a regularly changing situation, it will pay to keep up to date.

It is also worth bearing in mind that some of these authorised activities - such as visiting a library, a recycling centre or a cemetery - will be available in some areas more quickly than others, depending on what local arrangements have to be made, and when they can be put in place.

Remember too however, that as the opportunities for us to venture back out into the wider world increase, so do those that might enable coronavirus to spread, unless we observe social distancing rules.

In the worst case scenario that will mean some of these freedoms may need to be curtailed again for a time.

  • Senedd Research provides comprehensive coronavirus help and information at https://seneddresearch.blog/2020/03/17/coronavirus-constituency-support/