‘Draft guidance for getting people back to work during the coronavirus pandemic could compromise worker safety, the head of the TUC has warned.’
BBC News, 4th May 2020
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The courts and tribunals in England and Wales are now conducting almost half as many civil and criminal hearings as they did before the coronavirus crisis, a justice minister said yesterday.’
Legal Futures, 5th April 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘This article is the second in a series from Hailsham Chambers addressing insurance implications from the current Covid-19 situation. It explores various causation, mitigation and quantum issues that are likely to arise in that litigation.’
Hailsham Chambers, April 2020
Source: www.hailshamchambers.com
‘Inevitably the COVID-19 pandemic will result in a significant increase in the workload of coroners and the number of inquests being heard. Cases where the virus may have been contracted in the workplace setting including frontline workers because of the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) may be one significant area of potential inquiry.’
Parklane Plowden Chambers, 4th May 2020
Source: www.parklaneplowden.co.uk
‘This is the first appeal in a case relating to the welfare of children to reach the Court of Appeal on the issue of remote hearings during the Covid-19 crisis.’
Broadway House Chambers, 1st May 2020
Source: broadwayhouse.co.uk
‘An Inquest is not a foregone conclusion, since death by prevalent disease will not necessarily be considered “unnatural”. There is new guidance issued today (28 April 2020) by the Chief Coroner as to the circumstances in which in Inquest will be appropriate.’
Doughty Street Chambers, 28th April 2020
Source: insights.doughtystreet.co.uk
‘Coronavirus presents a serious threat to society, legitimising the collection of public health data under Article 9:2 (g) of GDPR regulations, which allows the processing of such data if “necessary for reasons of substantial public interest”. Some of this collection will take the form of contact tracing apps, which have been used in containing the spread of coronavirus in countries such as Singapore.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 1st May 2020
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘ Today the Joint Committee on Human Rights will take evidence from the Information Commissioner, academics and the CEO of NHSX on the risks to the right to privacy (Article 8 ECHR) if a contact tracing app is introduced to track and slow the spread of the coronavirus. This is helpful scrutiny of the government’s plans. Yet if the government goes ahead with its proposed contact-tracing application it is essential that the processing of large amounts of personal data by the state, even if done in the public interest, needs a clear legal basis in the form of specific legislation.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 4th May 2020
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘The Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, has sharply criticised the government’s relaxation of regulations relating to children’s social care, saying she does not believe that they are necessary except in one limited case.’
Local Government Lawyer, 1st May 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The rules of the government’s job retention scheme are complex. We put your questions to an employment specialist to cut through the confusion.’
The Guardian, 3rd May 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Oral wills should be made legal during the coronavirus pandemic in the same way that they are permitted in times of war, say campaigners.’
The Guardian, 2nd May 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The regulations make changes to the duties that local authorities have with regards to safeguarding children. These are temporary changes and the regulations give a date in September 2020 for them to lapse. This date can be extended, reviewed or simply removed. They were simply made by virtue of the Coronavirus Act 2020. Parliament did not need to approve them first.’
Transparency Project, 3rd May 2020
Source: www.transparencyproject.org.uk
‘Britain’s financial watchdog is urgently seeking clarity from the courts over the insurance rights of companies whose business has been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.’
The Guardian, 1st May 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The government is facing a challenge to the legality of the coronavirus lockdown by a wealthy businessman who fears it will kill more people than it saves.’
The Guardian, 1st May 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The Department for Education has taken two key steps to relieve councils of duties related to children with special educational needs (SEN) during the Covid-19 crisis.’
Law Society's Gazette, 1st May 2020
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘New video equipment is being introduced to over 100 courts as the government increasingly turns to technology to conduct hearings remotely and keep the justice system running during the Covid-19 pandemic.’
Law Society's Gazette, 1st May 2020
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘At the start of the year, some 1,200 immigrants were being held in immigration detention in the UK. The power to detain immigrants is separate from detention of individuals as part of a criminal sentence. There is a presumption against detention of immigrants and immigration detention, which can only be in accordance with one of the statutory powers (the majority of which are contained in the Immigration Act 1971 and the Immigration and Asylum Act 2002), and is allowed in the interests of maintaining effective immigration control, for example, to effect removal; to establish a person’s identity or the basis of their immigration claim; or where there is reason to believe that the person will fail to comply with any conditions attached to a grant of immigration bail.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 30th April 2020
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘The Coronavirus Act 2020, which was passed in less than three days by Parliament, does not contain the restrictions governing the lockdown in England. These are contained in the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (the Regulations) passed under the Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984. Devolved governments have pursued similar strategies in this respect. As Professor Jeff King has argued on this blog, s.45 of the 1984 Act can be ‘construed literally to confer powers to impose the lockdown’ because it allows for restrictions on ‘persons, things or premises in the event’ of a threat to public health. Like all secondary legislation, following s.3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 this needs to be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Yet, as this post sets out, some difficult rights trade-offs and restrictions may come from lifting lockdown restrictions requiring us to revaluate what we consider as normal in terms of balancing rights and liberties.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 1st May 2020
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘As has been widely reported, the ‘lockdown’ imposed by the UK Government to tackle the continuing pandemic is governed in the main by the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/350) (the Original Regulations).’
UK Human Rights Blog, 1st May 2020
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
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