Thread by @AdamWagner1

A lot of parents are asking me whether if a school tells your child to self isolate there is a legal duty for them to do so (meaning that you could be given a fixed penalty notice or charged with an offence if you do not comply)

I am actually going to change what I said in the original thread - an be a bit less equivocal. I think that it is entirely possible that the legal duty to self isolate and would be triggered as school could be engaged by a local authority in communicable disease control.

As with all things Covid regulations, the answer is not particularly clear!

It's actually very bad that it isn't clear whether the parents of hundreds of thousands of children having to self-isolate are subject to a legal duty (ie can be given a fixed penalty notice or charged) or not

I read the schools guidance (gov.uk/government/pub…). I am not convinced the govt think schools telling children to self-isolate triggers a legal duty.

"Anyone told to isolate by NHS Test & Trace or by their public health protection team has a legal obligation to self-isolate"

It's pretty obvious from the guidance that "NHS Test and Trace or ... their public health protection team" relates to the "relevant person" test under the self-isolation regulations

legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1045…

A school could, in theory, be "a person employed or engaged by a local authority in communicable disease control" but that sounds quite narrow ("a person") and I doubt parliament intended for it to capture every school in the country - could have easily said that if so.