BUSINESSES will be asked to share the cost of paying salaries of those on the Government's workplace retention scheme in due course, the Business Secretary has said.

Alok Sharma the Business Secretary said more detail on the measures would be issued before the end of the month as he discussed the announcement made by the Chancellor Rishi Sunak earler today (Tuesday, May 12) regarding extending the workplace retention scheme by four months.

During the daily briefing from Downing Street today, Mr Sharma said more than two million people had now been tested for coronavirus.

Across the UK a total of 226,463 people had tested positive for the virus, and of those 32,692 had died - up 627 on the previous day.

Mr Sharma also took time to go over the Goverment's second phase of lockdown plan.

He said the Government had introduced a Covid Alert Level, with a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning there are no known cases of the virus in the country, and 5 meaning the number of cases threatens to overwhelm the health service.

He said this level would be determined by the rate of infection (R) and the total number of cases.

The lower the rate, the more the government will relax the lockdown measures.

Mr Sharma said: "Those who cannot work form home, should speak to their employer about going back to work."

He also emphasised that from tomorrow people will be allowed to exercise more than once per day outside, and that public outdoor spaces would now be open.

Mr Sharma added: "You can meet one person outside of your household, outside, provided you stay two metres apart."

Step two - which will come in from June 1 at the earliest aims to allow primary schools to re-open for some pupils in smaller class sizes, and non-essential retail to open where it is safe to do so.

Cultural and sporting events will also be able to take place behind closed doors without crowds.

Step three, which will happen no earlier than July 4, will seee more businesses and premises to open including leisure facilities, public places and places of worship.

"Many of these businesses will need to operate in new ways and we will work with these sectors on how to do this," Mr Sharma said.

He said guidance would be issued to businesses to suggest how employees can safely social distance at work, saying barriers and more frequent cleaning of work areas and equipment could be necessary.

He also said that up to £14m has been made available for the Health and Safety Executive for extra call centre employers, inspectors and equipment if needed.

The minister also commented on the UK government's furlough scheme, which has been extended by four months.

Mr Sharma said: "Employers using the retention scheme will be able to bring back employees part time, and as the economy re-opens, we will ask firms to start sharing, with government, the cost of paying people's salaries."

Mr Sharma said more details on how this would work would be issued before the end of the month.