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Two provisions of the Coronavirus Act 2020 that remain in force but are rarely mentioned

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Two provisions of the Coronavirus Act 2020 that have received little attention are as follows. They both remain in force; neither of them was ended early by the Coronavirus Act 2020 (Early Expiry) Regulations 2021.)

1) Section 11 (E&W; see s12-13 for S & NI): indemnity for "health service activity" that kills people as a result of negligence

Specifically: an "appropriate authority" (defined in Schedule 7 for E&W as including the Secretary of State and county councils) may indemnify a person in respect of any civil liability that arises out of a "breach of a duty of care", including if as a result people are killed, if

* the said person is caring for someone suspected of having "coronavirus disease" (whether or not in respect of that disease) or

* if they are standing in for another healthworker who can't do their normal job owing to the health service having moved them to other responsibilities so that the service can provide such coronavirus care.

Yes - whether or not the care is in respect of that disease. This means that if you are suspected of having Covid and a medic or nurse kills you out of negligence, they aren't liable - even if they're a chiropodist treating your feet, or a nurse changing your bedclothes.

2) Section 58 (referencing Schedule 28): special powers in relation to "transportation, storage and disposal of dead bodies etc."

The bulk of this is in Schedule 28 which is long. A taster:

"A designated local authority may give a direction requiring a person to do anything calculated to facilitate the transportation, storage or disposal of dead bodies or other human remains in the local authority’s area or from its area."

A lot of this is about being able to order companies to provide vehicles and premises for the transportation, storage, and "disposal" (which surely must include cremation) of large numbers of dead bodies.

This summer the government looked at the provisions in the 2020 Act and decided to end some of its provisions early. But it kept these two.

If there were an opposition in Parliament, it might have noticed...

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(@coronanationstreet)
Joined: 3 years ago

Haven't looked at it in detail however, presumably the first point also covers amateurs who have been "trained" to provide jabs?

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(@star)
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Posts: 79

@coronanationstreet - Yes, I'm sure it covers them. There's a Schedule 1 too about "emergency registration of nurses and other health and care professionals".

There must be a huge insurance angle here, but that's way beyond the radar of both the mainstream media (because they want to pull their weight for the system - and even if they experience moments when they don't, it's far more than their jobs and careers are worth to do anything about it) and critics (because we don't have the information).

Someone told me that during one of the big moments of trouble in the Irish banking system, an insurance outfit that covered all or at least most British solicitors was at risk of losing all its money, and had that happened then without emergency government financial intervention the legal system would just have come to a halt.

Like solicitors, medics always "CYA".

 

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(@ewloe)
Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 319

both measures seem wise in urgent circumstances.

@coronanationstreet not necessarily amateurs, in an urgent situation, it may be necessary to divert people from their normal roles to do some urgent task. it would not be right to expect such people, whether ot not amateurs, to do the task under threat of punishment if they err.

The second measure is to prevent, in an urgent situation, the accumulation of cadavres rotting in the  streets. we don't want that.

 

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