AS WE begin to approach the halfway point in our second lockdown people are staring to wonder what will happen on December 2.

The Government said it hopes England’s current coronavirus lockdown will end in December and return to a system of tiered controls.

But how will the restrictions change and what does it mean for Christmas 2020?

Here are the answers to some key questions over the future of the country’s Covid-19 measures.

Will England’s lockdown definitely end in December?

The legal end point for the four-week lockdown is December 2, any extension to the lockdown will require a vote in Parliament.

Whether or not the lockdown ends or is extended depends on a review of Covid-19 case data to assess if the lockdown has had an effect.

When will we know what happens after lockdown?

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday, November 16 that it is too early to know the impact of the second lockdown on coronavirus cases.

He hopes measures can be eased on December 2, to be replaced with “a tiered system similar to what we had before”.

On Tuesday, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the true impact of national measures was not yet known due to a time lag of two or three weeks on case numbers, but that he expected there to be a “significant easing” next month.

He said the Government hopes to be in a position to take a judgment on future measures by the end of November, meaning we could know by next week.

Will the new tier system will be different?

We don’t know the details yet, but the hints from Government suggest there will be changes.

Mr Hancock said the new system would be “similar” to what came before, while Mr Jenrick said the Government would like to see “greater consistency” within the new tiers.

Mr Jenrick said the Government would review which measures had been “most impactful” and whether to “embed” the additional measures available to local areas previously placed under Tier 3.

Under the old Tier 3, social mixing was banned both indoors and in private gardens, while pubs and bars had to close unless they could operate as a restaurant.

The rule of six applied in some outdoor settings such as parks and people were advised against travel in and out of areas.

But local authorities also had the discretion to introduce additional measures such as preventing the sale of alcohol in the hospitality sector, closing down all venues while allowing for takeaway and delivery, or shutting leisure facilities.

Asked if there could be a tougher tier than Tier 3 in any new system, Mr Jenrick said: “We haven’t come to a decision on that” but noted Tier 3 was a “baseline” on top of which local authorities could “go further”.

Will families in England be able to spend Christmas together?

Unfortunately we still don’t know.

Mr Jenrick said, while emphasising decisions on future restrictions were still to be made, that the “hard yards” of the November lockdown had been designed to “enable most people in England to have a much more normal December so that we can go to the shops, we can use hospitality and, as far as possible, we can be together as families at Christmas”.

Meanwhile, the Government is piloting new visitation procedures in 20 care homes in the hope of rolling them out more widely, and university students will be permitted to return home in a “travel window” after lockdown ends next month.