Precise meaning of couples forming extended household

[gifeng]

Not directly relevant to me but came up in discussion: at least in Scotland you can form an extended household under various conditions, and then be considered as one household for covid purposes. The main situation, which is pretty clear, is if one household has only one adult in it. However another case is "couple who don't live together". Now, this must be there for cases where both members of the couple live in households also containing other adults (otherwise, couples wouldn't need a special case, they could just form an extended household under the main "one household has only one adult in it" rule). What I don't understand and haven't been able to find out is, what precisely is allowed and what is not? It is said that all adults in both households must agree, but what are they agreeing to? For example, are they, or are they not, agreeing to give up any other extended household formation?

Concrete example: consider a student flat containing 5 people. Each person is in a relationship with someone who lives in a different student flat. Do they have to pick just one of them to be the lucky person who gets to form an extended household under the couple rule? Or can all 6 flats (this one, plus the flat of each partner) get combined into one extended household? The latter seems silly, especially when you think about all the other students in those flats and their partners... However, I can't find a clear specification, or even any discussion of it. Has anyone?

The way I understand it, with current lockdown rules in England, if there is more than one adult in both households, then none of them are able to form a support bubble. If any of the adults are in an established relationship then when they meet their partner, they don't need to follow the social distancing rules (2m, face coverings, etc.) that they would normally follow with people outside the household. However the partner still doesn't count as part of the household, so meetings would have to be outdoors. They just don't have to be distanced.

I checked the rules in Scotland for level 4 and I see what you mean about them being confusing! It looks as if an "extended household" is similar to a bubble. One household can only form an extended household with one other, so yes, I think that when you have adults living together, they would have to agree and choose who the lucky one was going to be!

If it wasn't different flats but six students in one flat were involved with six students from one other flat, then I don't see why the two flats couldn't become an extended household and all of them could mix without distancing.

I think it also must be difficult for singletons in shared accomodation like that. If they are living as a part of a household with other adults, they can't form a bubble or extended household even if they're not on speaking terms with the other residents.

Yes, looking again, it seems clear the maximum of two households to form an extended household applies regardless, so in our hypothetical student flat (where people who share a flat are partnered with people in several different flats) they do have to choose at most one person. Then, it's still not clear what the role of "any children who live with you" is, if there are also adults who live with you. I guess the whole thing is creative ambiguity.