Instruments relating to COVID-19
Travel
Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) (Amendment) (No. 13) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/498)
11.This instrument amends the International Travel Regulations6 to add India to the list of countries from which arrivals must quarantine in a hotel for 10 days. In addition, it:
- gives immigration officers the power to require someone to take a day 0 test if they have failed to present valid notification of a negative pre-departure test or tried to evade immigration control;
- provides exemptions from managed quarantine for trained nurses coming to the UK for NHS employment. (We note that the independent and social care sectors (for example nursing homes) are not included in this exemption even though their resources are also stretched by the pandemic.);
- provides exemption from managed quarantine for people transporting human blood, organs, and tissues
- provides a diplomatic exemption from self-isolation, managed quarantine, day 2 and day 8 testing requirements and the Passenger Locator Form for all persons attending or facilitating the G7 Presidency events hosted by the UK;
- adds Bristol Airport as a designated Managed Quarantine Service port; and
- makes various corrections and amendments to the testing regime, including removing approval in Schedule 2C for private providers to supply tests to arrivals from red list countries in the Managed Quarantine System. The Department for Health and Social Care states that these changes have proved operationally and digitally complex and further time is required to review them.
Delayed or revoked legislation
Draft Coronavirus Act 2020 (Early Expiry) Regulations 2021
12.As part of the one-year review of the Coronavirus Act 2020 (“the Act”), the proposal to terminate these 12 temporary provisions in advance of the rest of the Act was debated in both Houses on 25 March 2021.7 Nine of the provisions are devolved, for which the Secretary of State has obtained the necessary consent from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The provisions to be removed are:
- Sections 8–9: Provided for emergency volunteering leave and compensation for additional staff from other parts of the workforce to support the NHS (not commenced);
- Part 1 of Schedule 12 (section 15): Enabled local authorities to divert resources to care and support from other duties (used eight times and not since 29 June 2020);
- Section 24: Extended retention of fingerprints and DNA profiles to allow more time for security reviews to be done (applied for two consecutive six month periods);
- Sections 25-29: Provided for power to require information relating to food supply chains (not required as information was volunteered where necessary);
- Section 71: Allowed legal instruments to be signed by only one Treasury Commissioner;
- Section 79: Postponement of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) ballots, allowed for the extension of BIDs if required, but all necessary ballots were held;
- Section 84: Allowed postponement of General Synod elections to 31 July 2021 and allowed relevant Church officials to remain in office until successors are elected.8
6 Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/568).
7 HL Deb, 25 March 2021, cols 984–1048.
8 The Government has published a table setting out the status of each measure in the Act which will be amended if these Regulations are approved. DHSC, ‘Coronavirus Act 2020: status’ (7 May 2020): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-act-2020-status [accessed 10 May 2021].