With today’s announcement of the end to legal COVID restrictions, we hear from Sandy Green of the HR Dept, with issues that will effect employers.
We always recommend Sandy for employment law issues, including contracts, and HR issues. She is a great asset to your team!
Prime minister Boris Johnson has announced the UK Government’s strategy for living with COVID in England, which you can find in full here.
This was detailed as a four-point plan which moves away from Government restrictions and towards personal responsibility to manage the virus.
Remove all remaining domestic restrictions in law:
The first point will be of most significance to employers as it covers the lifting of legal COVID restrictions in England.
There are various dates to be aware of:
From 21 February 2022:
- the requirement for staff and students in most education and childcare settings to undertake twice weekly testing ended.
From Thursday 24 February 2022:
- the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test will end.
- close contacts who are not fully vaccinated will also no longer need to self-isolate.
- routine contact tracing will end.
- workers will not be legally obliged to tell their employers when they are required to self-isolate.
From 24 March 2022:
- the COVID-19 provisions within Statutory Sick Pay and Employment and Support Allowance regulations will end.
- people with COVID-19 may still be eligible, subject to the normal conditions of entitlement.
From 1 April 2022:
- the Government will remove current guidance on domestic and voluntary COVID status certification and will no longer recommend that certain venues use the NHS COVID Pass.
- the government will no longer encourage those with COVID to stay home, but to exercise personal responsibility.
- Free symptomatic and asymptomatic testing will end for the general public.
- Free symptomatic tests will still be made available for the elderly and most vulnerable.
By the end of Summer 2022:
- all temporary provisions of the Coronavirus Act are expected to expire by the end of summer.
For more information:
see the full plan for Living with COVID in England and contact us if you have HR questions concerning your business and people management.
Please contact Sandy Green on 07508 165221 or sandy.green@hrdept.co.uk if you would like any more information or help.
Please also check out:
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