Coronavirus Act one-year report: March 2021
One-year report on which powers in the Coronavirus Act 2020 are currently active.
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The Coronavirus Act 2020 was designed to protect public health and ensure sufficient preparation for a worst-case scenario. The Act ensures that:
- the NHS had the capacity to deal with the peak of the virus
- critical societal functions are protected and able to continue
- effective support packages are in place for people and businesses
These powers are temporary and designed to be switched on when necessary, and off when no longer needed.
The Act requires ministers to publish a 2-month and one-year report on the status of the non-devolved provisions.
Amended report: April 2021
The one-year report, laid in Parliament on 22 March 2021, contained a factual error regarding the status of regulations made under section 24 of the Coronavirus Act.
Section 24 provides for a regulation-making power to temporarily extend the ordinary statutory time limits for the retention of fingerprints and DNA profiles being held in the interest of national security. The report laid in Parliament in March 2021 stated that the second set of regulations made under the section 24 power are expired, but, in fact, they are extant and will continue to have effect until 24 September in respect of biometrics which would otherwise have fallen to be destroyed between 1 October 2020 and 24 March 2021. The error does not affect the substance of the report and regulations will still be laid in due course expiring those provisions outlined in the report, including section 24.
On 19 April 2021, the report was updated to correct the error.
Last updated 19 April 2021 + show all updates
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Replaced the one-year report with an updated version to amend an error regarding the status of regulations made under section 24. Added a new document setting out the corrections.
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First published.