Thread by @AdamWagner1

There has been some discussion on my timeline as to whether (a) Prince Philip's funeral would be subject to the Covid regulations at all, and (b) if so whether The Queen would be.

Thank you to those who illuminated this for me, I had not given it much thought

https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1381225310490927113

Is Windsor Castle subject to the Covid regulations (currently the "Steps" regulations - here )?

The starting point is that the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 only appears to apply to "Crown property" by agreement - see section 73

The Steps regulations (we are now in Step 2) have rules for funerals which require it to be held in a a "public outdoor place" amongst other potential venues.

A "public outdoor place" is defined as including "crown land to which the public has access "

legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/364/…

This is how "crown land" is defined 👇🏻

Now, Windsor Castle is in usual times "crown land to which the public has access" - though not at the moment

This does sound like there has been some kind of agreement for Crown Land "to which the public has access" to be included in the Steps regulations

But I haven't seen any express agreement

So I think Windsor Castle is potentially caught by the regulations but not definitely

But this can get very arcane - e.g. when you think about the chapel versus the rest of the land where the procession will be. So, really, it's a bit of a🤷🏼‍♂️

English law can get very weird when you are talking about the Crown and Church

https://twitter.com/dnpocklington/status/1381506456378294277?s=20

Next question: would The Queen be part of the 30?

Here you should separate the question of (a) whether she could be fined prosecuted for a breach (she could not - because Crown immunity) and (b) whether she is a "person" within the 30.

I would have thought The Queen would be included in the 30 because... well... she's a person. You know, a human. Not a deity or some other kind of metaphysical entity.

But

https://twitter.com/ObiterJ/status/1381499621474713601?s=20

This will of course remain in the realm of the theoretical

https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1381225310490927113?s=20

Comments welcome!

This is very good though not about the Steps regulations (it pre-dated them). I shared it at the time ukconstitutionallaw.org/2021/02/15/ron…