Local Authority Powers: Coronavirus Update
Local Authority Powers: Coronavirus Update
'Part 2A Public Health Orders
Jonathan Manning and Siân McGibbon
As the UK emerges from lockdown, and as local spikes start to emerge, it is increasingly important that new cases of coronavirus are identified quickly and that anyone who may be infectious complies with guidelines on quarantine, self-isolation and contact tracing. This article considers the potential of Part 2A Public Health Orders as a tool for local authorities to enforce testing and quarantine requirements where infectious individuals refuse to comply voluntarily and pose a threat to public health.
Part 2A Orders were introduced by the Health Protection (Part 2A Orders) Regulations 2010 made under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 to allow an LA to apply to a justice of the peace for a range of powers to manage persons (or things) that are or may be infectious or contaminated. A Part 2A Order can be sought to impose restrictions on groups or individuals under sections 45G and 45J respectively of the 1984 Act; this article focuses on applications in respect of individuals under 45G, but the procedure and scope of the two regimes is broadly similar.
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