Statutory guidance

Local authority powers to impose restrictions under coronavirus regulations

Supports the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No 3) Regulations 2020 that came into force on 18 July 2020.

• From: Department of Health and Social Care
• Published: 17 July 2020
• Last updated: 28 September 2021
  Show all updates

  1. 28 September 2021

     Updated 'Local authority powers to impose restrictions: Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No 3) Regulations 2020' to extend the regulations until 24 March 2022.

  2. 5 August 2021

     Updated 'Local authority powers to impose restrictions: Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No 3) Regulations 2020'. Removed reference to a recommendation asking the local authority to seek advice from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport when issuing a direction on events, added references to the 3 legal tests in the examples section, plus some minor changes to wording throughout.

  3. 22 July 2021

     Step 4 updates.

  4. 10 December 2020

     The guidance has been revised to include new powers that enable all local authorities to take action against specific offences where premises are not operating in a COVID-secure manner, through issuing formal requests for rapid improvement. In addition, three template attachments have been added to the page.

  5. 12 October 2020

     Added to 'examples of premises which would form part of essential infrastructure': 'individual hospitality settings' and 'where safe and feasible, delivery takeaway options should be allowed to continue operating'.

  6. 17 July 2020

     First published.

This publication was withdrawn on 28 February 2022

The regulations that this guidance refers to expired on 24 February 2022. See The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation etc.) (Revocation) (England) Regulations 2022.

Applies to England

Documents

[Withdrawn] Local authority powers to impose restrictions: Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No 3) Regulations 2020

HTML

[Withdrawn] Template for individual premises regulation 4(1) of (No.3) regulations

ODT, 21 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

[Withdrawn] Template for events regulation 5(1) of (No.3) regulations

ODT, 21.3 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

[Withdrawn] Template for outdoor places regulation 6(1) of (No.3) regulations

ODT, 21.2 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Details

This document provides guidance for local authorities in England on:

• what the new regulations allow them to do and how they should exercise those powers
• how those powers should be enforced
• guidance for those affected by local authority directions