Herding cats

March 25th, 2020 by Peter Oldham QC

One of the difficulties faced by LAs in dealing with Government Covid guidance is keeping track of it as it continues (unsurprisingly) to pour forth.  The following is a good starting point: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-local-government.

However, it’s not intended to be a comprehensive set of guidance: for instance it does not deal with education. There is a collection of education guidance here:- https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-schools-and-other-educational-settings.

A more general Covid collection of Government guidance is at https://www.gov.uk/government/latest?topical_events%5B%5D=coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response.

And of course sometimes Government guidance does not capture relevant material from other sources, for instance the European Commission’s Temporary Framework on State Aid, which you can find at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/uri=OJ%3AJOC_2020_091_I_0001.

The LGA has an extremely helpful collection of material at https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/coronavirus-information-councils.

Parliamentary material on the Bill – and there is a great deal of it – is at https://services.parliament.uk/Bills/2019-21/coronavirus/documents.html.

While that includes some impact material, the Government’s overall Summary of Impacts document on the Bill is not on there, and that can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-bill-summary-of-impacts/coronavirus-bill-summary-of-impacts.  It is on a page headed Department of Health and Social Care, though it deals with provisions of the Bill generally and not just in relation to health and social care. It includes some important material.

Peter Oldham QC

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