Scrutable

IANAL which is why the government legislation around coronavirus is so unintelligible to me. I was looking at the legislation last night to see what it said about sending people back to work. The original legislation has been revoked and I'm having trouble seeing what's replaced it. I think it's this. It has very similar language to the original legislation as it says,

6.—(1) During the emergency period, no person may leave [F1or be outside of] the place where they are living without reasonable excuse.
(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), a reasonable excuse includes the need—
(f) to work or to provide voluntary or charitable services, where it is not reasonably possible for that person to work, or to provide those services, from the place where they are living;

I've got a PDF of the original legislation and it said,

6.—(1) During the emergency period, no person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable excuse.
(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), a reasonable excuse includes the need—
(f) to travel for the purposes of work or to provide voluntary or charitable services, where it is not reasonably possible for that person to work, or to provide those services, from the place where they are living;

From what I understand the edits were put in to ensure that people were still outside for one of the excuses (I think it was discussed on the forum somewhere and David Allen Green had a post about it) and to allow people to actually work as well as travel to work. So that's not the bit of the legislation that's allowing people to go back to offices.

I've no doubt that the law has been changed (not because I trust the government, but because my twitter hasn't gone insane with people pointing out that the law hasn't changed), but I can't find where. Can anyone help me find the legislation that's allowing offices and other non-essential workplaces from opening, and what legislation/guidance they're being provided to protect their employees. Thanks!

There is specific provision for garden centres and open air sports centres to open as they have been added to Schedule 3 (see article 5(1) - these are the exempt ones).

Pinsent Masons have done a thing on employer's obligations (I haven't read through it yet but it could be a starting point): https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/g ... lth-safety

Thanks, the Pinsent Mason's link was very useful

We've been having this discussion at work. By various definitions we are a financial services company or a computer lab undergoing commercial research and development.

The former means we're classed as essential workers, the latter means we can now reopen with social distancing.

The boss is conscious that neither is watertight and the regs are too loose for us to be certain. So we're staying closed.