Prime Minister Boris Johnson says from Monday up to six people from different households can meet outside, maintaining a two metre distance between them.

This now includes private gardens as the prime minister says "people should not be inside the homes of their friends and families unless it is to access the garden".

It comes as the chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told the daily press conference the R number – which estimates the infection rate – is currently between 0.7 and 0.9.

It is a slight reduction on the latest estimate as of last Friday, which was between 0.7 and 1.0.

But he says it may be "very close" to 1 in some areas - and although numbers are going down, they are not "coming down fast".

The government wants to keep this number below 1 at all times, meaning the spread of the virus is decreasing rather than increasing.

Prof Witty said that it can take two or three days before symptoms show, for two, so if those asked to isolate don't, they are "the biggest risk of unwittingly having the infection without symptoms and spreading it for two or three days".

There's a question about how long people will be able to stay outside in their groups of six, and whether they will be able to "nip inside to use the loo".

Mr Johnson says the government doesn't want people to stay overnight, although people can have socially-distanced barbecues if they "exercise common sense".

Prof Whitty says during a barbecue people should also make sure they wash their hands so as not to transmit the virus.

A second question to the experts on whether it is appropriate for someone to drive to test their eyesight - as Mr Cummings says he did during his lockdown trip - goes unanswered.

Boris Johnson said: "The British people have made heroic sacrifices, to get the R down, and drive down infections.

"People will listen carefully to the message. We are taking tentative steps forward in education, in business, and for people to meet their friends and family again."