As trailed by Home Secretary last week there is now a fixed penalty notice of £800 (or £400 if you pay within 14 days) for participating in an gathering of over 15 people in a private residence
Fixed Penalty Notices double for each subsequent “large gathering offence” up to £6,400
Compare:
- Ordinary fixed penalty notice is £200 or £100 if paid in 14 days
- Holding or being involved in the holding of a gathering of over 30 people is £10,000
Second big change:
Since September has been a legal requirement to sell-isolate if you test positive/notified by Track & Trace of exposure to someone else who tested positive
Police can now be given access to NHS Track & Trace data if for the purpose of enforcement/prosecution
This will make it easier for police to enforce people breaking self-isolation rules. Currently there has been practically no enforcement.
Data says only a small proportion of people meant to be self-isolating are fully doing so.
But obviously this raises important human rights questions because police will be given access to information about our movements and social interactions.
They are only permitted to use that data for the purposes of Covid rules enforcement - but will they?
- Will data be kept safe and secure?
- Can police resist the temptation of using the data for other criminal enforcement purposes?
- Do we want the police having this information at all?
- Is enforcement going to make things better? Or make people less willing to share info?
As I said in the tweet quoted above, track & trace has mostly failed but we don't know if because police haven't been able to enforce. Could equally be lack of follow up, bad messaging, basic incompetence. As with all things Covid related, don't assume enforcement is the answer
Important point made by @mikarv that the ability for the police to access Track & Trace data does *not* extend to data caught by the NHS phone app. See my thread on the self-isolation law
I also made a YouTube video on the self-isolation law - nb. as the description says the self-isolation rules have subsequently been amended to reduce the isolation times down from 14 to 10 days in certain circumstances
Good question. As far as I can tell (as usually you have to piece together two bits of law to figure it out) it is the contact details (including name, address), the notification of positive test/exposure, the period of isolation. So...
... should not include the details of who they came into contact with, however the police may be able to figure that out if they piece together multiple notifications given at the same time.
Don’t forget the police don’t necessarily want to be doing this either
Some thoughts on the legality of hotel quarantine (thread)
- What will be the legal basis of hotel quarantine? I am guessing s45B(2)(b) of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984. Seems a pretty straightforward provision... /1
... but important questions about what detail will be.
- since likely to be a deprivation of liberty in human rights law will need safeguards.
- Will it need specific authorisation each time?
- regular reviews or will 14 days be compulsory?
- access to judicial review?
- As far as I understand Norway (another European Convention on Human Rights state) did this but without legal compulsion
- Interesting Human Rights question whether detention of *potentially* infectious people falls within article 5 exception (will depend in part on necessity)
I’m afraid to say that this behaviour may have been triggered in part by bogus advice going round the ultra orthodox Jewish community about how to get round the Covid restrictions. I have tweeted about it before
I have tried repeatedly to communicate with Rabbi Teitelbaum (whose leaflet I understand has gone to thousands of homes) as I guessed his constituents are not my followers on Twitter. I achieved some success in a leaflet being amended but not enough sadly
It has been pointed out to me, fairly, that there is another possible interpretation that if you attend with 15+ people (so there are 16+ people) you fall within the new rule. But the wording is ambiguous as it could be the *party* which has 15+
As I have pointed out a few times, the £10,000 Fixed Penalty Notice 'mega fine' has always been a strange aspect of the regulations enforcement regime.