Instruments related to Covid-19
Changes to business practice and regulation: Travel
Draft Airports Slot Allocation (Alleviation of Usage Requirements) (No. 3) Regulations 2022
16.An airport “slot” is a permission to use all necessary airport infrastructure at a specified date and time for take-off or landing. Allocation of airport slots at congested airports is governed by Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 which, among other things, provides that if an airline has used at least 80% of its slots in the preceding winter or summer season, it is entitled to the same series of slots in the following equivalent season (the “80:20 rule”).
17.Due to the pandemic’s continuing effects on air travel, the Government have been managing these rules more flexibly. This instrument amends the airport slot usage rule to 70:30 for the Winter 2022 season (30 October 2022 until 25 March 2023).
18.It also amends the list of justified reasons for not using a slot to include flight bans, border closures or the imposition of COVID-19 testing before travel, where this has reduced passenger demand. While continuing a waiver that allows up to 10% of slots to be treated as operated if they are handed back between 1 and 7 September for reallocation, the instrument modifies the waiver to prevent airlines from reapplying for any of their surrendered slots until 14 September, so as to ensure that other carriers have time to bid for them.
Delayed or revoked legislation
School Discipline (Pupil Exclusions and Reviews) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/788)
19.This instrument introduces new requirements for sharing data on exclusions of pupils from school by adding social workers and, where relevant, Virtual School Heads13 to the list of parties to be informed of an exclusion and included in the different stages of the exclusion process; and by requiring head teachers to inform their local authorities immediately of all fixed-term exclusions, regardless of duration. The Department for Education (DfE) says that the consultation on the changes and the laying of the instrument were delayed by the pandemic.
20.According to DfE, the changes will provide local authorities, social workers and Virtual School Heads with the necessary information to assess and respond to the safeguarding needs of excluded pupils. DfE says that the changes draw on the findings of two reviews from 2019, the Children in Need Review14 and the Timpson Review,15 which both concluded that to promote safety and stability for all children, information needs to be shared between social care and schools, particularly where this could affect changes in education such as school exclusions.
13 Virtual School Heads are in charge of promoting the educational achievement of all the children looked after by the local authority for which they work.
14 Department for Education, ‘Review of children in need’: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-children-in-need/review-of-children-in-need [accessed 5 September 2022].
15 DfE, ‘Edward Timpson publishes landmark exclusions review’: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/edward-timpson-publishes-landmark-exclusions-review [accessed 5 September 2022].