Draft options for regional or local coronavirus interventions
Draft legislation options to show how government could respond to a local or regional coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak without returning to a national lockdown.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
The government’s aim is to return life to as close to normal as possible, for as many people as possible and as fast and fairly as possible. And to do so in a way that avoids a new epidemic, minimises lives lost and maximises health, economic and social outcomes.
As the Prime Minister set out on 17 July, we now are able better to identify outbreaks at an early stage at local and regional levels, and have taken steps to ensure appropriate local intervention, providing local authorities with new powers to act more quickly where speed is paramount to prevent outbreaks from spreading more widely.
This page sets out how ministers could use existing powers to control an outbreak if more wide-ranging action is necessary, building on the approaches taken nationally and in response to local outbreaks. They include draft options for intervention that illustrate how we could legislate in a targeted, proportionate way to respond to the particular circumstances of an outbreak.
These draft regulations are not an exhaustive list of options, and the government will continue to keep under review the actions necessary to most effectively contain outbreaks.
Guide to the documents
| Document | Overview |
|---|---|
| Explanatory note | An explanatory document summarising the potential interventions set out in the draft regulations |
| Core provisions | Draft text for statutory instruments to give effect to regional or local interventions including enforcement provisions which can be tailored, where required |
| Closure of premises and businesses | Draft regulations that could be enacted to close businesses and venues in whole sectors within a defined geographic area |
| Restrictions on movements or gatherings | Draft regulations that could be enacted to restrict the movement of people (including requirements to ‘stay at home’ or to prevent people staying away from home overnight, or restrictions on entering or leaving a defined area) |
| Restrictions on entering or leaving or travelling within the protected area | Draft regulations that could be enacted to place restrictions on local or national transport systems, including the cases in which individuals may use transport or enter or leave an area |
| Restrictions on transport services or use of transport hubs | Draft regulations that could be enacted to place restrictions on transport services or on the use of transport hubs |
| Use of face coverings | Draft regulations that could be enacted to mandate the use of face coverings in a wider range of public places |