AS pubs, restaurants and cafes prepare to reopen to customers outdoors next week - a number of changes to contact tracing have been made.

Ahead of April 12, when venues can serve food and drink outdoors, every customer over the age of 16 must provide their contact details or check-in using the NHS app.

Updated Government guidance on the reopening of the hospitality sector from next week says that venues must take "reasonable steps" to refuse entry to those who don't.

It means the owner of a beer garden could face "financial penalties" for allowing someone to enter without recording their contact details.

In the latest guidance for businesses, it says venues should display the official NHS QR code poster.

Venues should then ask every customer or visitor aged 16 and over to "check in" and provide their contact details.

It says this can be done using the NHS COVID-19 app to scan in the NHS QR code poster, or by having a "system" in place to manually record people's contact details.

The rules on how long venues should keep this data remain the same, a minimum of 21 days and required to provide those details to NHS Test and Trace, if requested.

The guidance goes on to add: "Take reasonable steps to refuse entry to those who refuse to check in or provide contact details."

The rule change comes as the Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week insisted he would not deviate from his roadmap out of the third national lockdown.

This was despite warnings from scientific advisers that the plan could result in a third wave of coronavirus cases and deaths.

The Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling group, which advises the Government, produced a paper dated March 31 showing an increase in hospital admissions and fatalities is “highly likely” during the later stages of the UK’s road map out of lockdown.

The Prime Minister defended his approach, insisting there was nothing in the data so far to persuade him to ditch his plans, which will see further easing of restrictions in England in stages on May 17 and June 21 at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the PM had already confirmed April 12 will see the next step along the road map, with shops, pub beer gardens, gyms and hairdressers among premises allowed to reopen.