Coronavirus Statutory Instruments Dashboard

For the data used on this Dashboard, we are counting as a Coronavirus-related Statutory Instrument any Statutory Instrument which has among its purposes the addressing of Coronavirus-related issues. If this is not self-evident from an SI’s title, the information is included in its Explanatory Memorandum. We are only counting Coronavirus-related Statutory Instruments which are laid before Parliament (so excluding those which are not laid, and those laid before the devolved legislatures and assemblies). The full list of the SIs that we are counting in order to generate the data on this Dashboard is at the bottom of the Dashboard.

The government has laid 453 Coronavirus-related Statutory Instruments (SIs) before the UK Parliament.

The first two Coronavirus-related SIs were laid on 28 January and 10 February 2020, respectively. The rest have been laid since 6 March 2020, at an average rate since then of seven per completed week.

Since the start of the week commencing 27 January 2020 (when the first Coronavirus-related SI was laid), the government has laid a total of 1,467 SIs covering all subjects.

Coronavirus-related SIs thus account for 31% of all the SIs laid before Parliament in this period.

Per week, since the week commencing 2 March 2020, Coronavirus-related SIs as a proportion of the total number of SIs laid before Parliament are:

[TABLE HERE]

Powers in 128 Acts of Parliament, five Orders and five EU Regulations (which are now retained EU law in the UK) have been used to lay Coronavirus-related Statutory Instruments.

Only 24 of all the Coronavirus-related SIs have been laid using powers in the Coronavirus Act 2020. Fifteen have been laid using powers in the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020.

The oldest powers used to lay Coronavirus-related SIs are in the Saint Helena Act 1833 and British Settlements Act 1887. This was for the highly specific case of the Overseas Territories (Constitutional Modifications) Order 2020, which was laid also using powers in the British Settlements Act 1945. In the Order, the Queen in Council amended the constitutions of the Falkland Islands and of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha to enable the legislative bodies of the Falkland Islands and St Helena to meet virtually.

For Coronavirus-related SIs laid before Parliament which extend only within the UK, the oldest powers used are in the Colonial Probates Act 1892. The next-oldest powers used are in the Registered Designs Act 1949. Powers in the Prison Act 1952 have also been used (to lay four of the SIs), as well as powers in eight Acts dating from the 1970s.

Powers in the European Communities Act 1972 have been used to lay 11 of the Coronavirus-related SIs.

In October 2020, the first SI was laid which was primarily a ‘Brexit’ SI and laid under the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 but which also made Coronavirus-related provisions. In total, seven Coronavirus-related SIs have so far been laid using powers in the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

The complete list of Acts of Parliament, Orders and Regulations that have been used to lay Coronavirus-related SIs is:

[LIST OF SIS]

Of the 104 Coronavirus-related SIs which are subject to the ‘made affirmative’ procedure, 89 were made using the urgent power conferred on ministers in the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984. Of the remaining 15 ‘made affirmative’ SIs, one was made using powers in the Local Government Finance Act 1988, one using powers in the Enterprise Act 2002 and two using powers in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Eleven were laid under the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020, combined in one case with the Insolvency Act 1986, in three cases with the Insolvency Act 1986 and the Companies Act 2006, and in two cases with the Charities Act 2011.

Coronavirus-related SIs have been laid before Parliament by 15 government departments.

From the start of the crisis to 23 July 2020, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had laid more Coronavirus-related SIs than any other department, in terms of running totals. (In the early phase of the pandemic, DWP’s tally was almost twice as high as as any other department’s.) However, DWP’s ‘lead’ over other departments was gradually eroded as immediate measures related to welfare and employment benefits became a smaller share of the total actions being taken through SIs:

• The growing body of national and local ‘lockdown’-related measures, in SIs laid by the Department of Health and Social Care, saw that department overtake the DWP’s tally on 23 July 2020.

• The rising number of SIs made to address the implications of the pandemic for business saw the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) match and overtake the DWP’s tally for the first time in late September 2020.

• The increasing number of SIs relating to international travel arrivals saw the Department for Transport equal and then overhaul the DWP’s total for the first time in October 2020.

• The expanding range of SIs being made to address the full implications of the pandemic, and to extend the life of time-limited measures taken earlier in the crisis, saw the DWP’s tally also matched and then overtaken by that of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG), in December 2020; and first matched by that of the Treasury, in February 2021, since when the two departments have been running almost neck-and-neck.

The Coronavirus-related Statutory Instruments are showing the pressures of the crisis in two ways:

Many Coronavirus-related Statutory Instruments have been amended by further such SIs, sometimes very rapidly, in order to implement changes in policy as these have been made over the course of the pandemic.

For example:

• the Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations 1982 were amended twice within four days, first by the Statutory Sick Pay (General) (Coronavirus Amendment) Regulations 2020 laid on 12 March 2020, and then by the Statutory Sick Pay (General) (Coronavirus Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020, laid on 16 March 2020;

• on 2-3 September 2020, the ‘protected area’ covered by the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Blackburn with Darwen and Bradford) Regulations 2020 was amended twice in 12 hours;

• the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place) (England) Regulations 2020 were amended by three different SIs made in two days on 22-23 September 2020.

By October 2020, new Coronavirus-related SIs were amending older ones in part simply to prolong the measures they contained, in reflection of changing expectations about the length of the pandemic. For example, the Public Health (Coronavirus) (Protection from Eviction) (England) (No. 2) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 extended the ban on evictions from 31 March to 31 May 2021, and were laid before Parliament (on 22 March) 31 days after the Regulations setting the earlier date had been laid, and just four days after those Regulations had been debated and approved by the House of Lords.

In some cases, this amending process has generated a series of related SIs, each one making successive changes to the same instrument. The most straightforward example is the series of Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) Regulations, which repeatedly amended the list of countries from which arrivals into England were exempt from quarantine requirements, and later also added and then successively amended the list of ‘red-list countries’, arrivals from which must enter ‘managed quarantine’. After being amended more than 50 times, the International Travel Regulations were finally revoked by the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021, laid on 14 May, which consolidated into a single Instrument the current versions of all SIs related to international travel arrivals into England during the pandemic. These new consolidated Regulations were themselves amended within three days.

In a more radical version of the process, rather than being amended some Coronavirus-related SIs have been revoked and replaced, when policy has changed:

• The first national ‘lockdown easing’ SI for England, the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (No. 2) (England) Regulations, laid on 3 July 2020, revoked the whole series of five sets of initial national ‘lockdown’ Regulations in England (the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations and the SIs amending them), which had been laid between 26 March and 12 June 2020. (The ‘lockdown easing’ SI has itself been amended by multiple instruments, including five main sets of amendment Regulations, generating a new series.)

• In October 2020, when policy in England switched to the use of three different ‘tiers’ of Coronavirus restrictions (with parts of the country being placed in and moved between them), earlier SIs which had implemented specific local restrictions in Leicester and various parts of northern England were revoked.

• At the end of October 2020, when policy changed again to a second England-wide ‘lockdown’, the second national ‘lockdown’ SI (the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020) revoked the three sets of initial ‘tier’ Regulations.

• In late November 2020, when policy evolved again to replace the second national ‘lockdown’ with an amended ‘tier’ system, the new Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020, laid on 30 November, revoked the second national ‘lockdown’ SI.

The third national lockdown in England was implemented by amending, rather than revoking, the ‘All Tiers’ Regulations. They were amended by nine further SIs in total between December 2020 and March 2021, including to start a new easing process in early March. However, the main SI made to implement the ‘roadmap’ out of the national lockdown, the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Steps) (England) Regulations 2021, laid on 22 March 2021, finally revoked the ‘All Tiers’ Regulations and introduced a new ‘Steps’ framework. England is being moved through the successive ‘steps’ out of lockdown by further SIs amending these Regulations.

Some Coronavirus-related SIs (which have not always been immediately withdrawn or revoked) have had omissions, technical mistakes and drafting shortcomings. As a result, others of the Coronavirus-related SIs have been made, at least in part, in order to correct these errors by amending the earlier instruments.

For example, both the main initial national ‘lockdown’ SI for England and the main initial ‘lockdown easing’ SI contained errors that were corrected by later SIs in their respective series. Similarly, the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Local COVID-19 Alert Level) (Medium, High and Very High) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, laid on 22 October, corrected errors in each of the three sets of initial ‘Tier’ Regulations; the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021, laid on 19 January 2021, corrected errors in the initial ‘All Tiers’ Regulations, laid on 30 November 2020; and the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Steps and Local Authority Enforcement Powers) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021, laid on 9 April 2021, corrected errors in the initial ‘Steps’ Regulations, laid on 22 March.

Most notably:

• the Tribunal Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2020, laid on 30 June 2020, in part amended a set of other other court-related Rules so as to insert a provision that was “mistakenly omitted (due to a drafting error) from the Tribunal Procedure (Coronavirus) Amendment Rules 2020”;

• the Charitable Incorporated Organisations (Insolvency and Dissolution) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020, laid on 13 August 2020, revoked and replaced the Charitable Incorporated Organisations (Insolvency and Dissolution) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, because “Due to an administrative error, the version of the first regulations made on 6 July was not the final draft of the instrument and contained drafting errors and omissions”;

• the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) (Amendment) (No. 10) Regulations 2020, laid on 24 August 2020, revoked and replaced the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) (Amendment) (No. 9) Regulations 2020 before the latter had come into force; the earlier set of Regulations needed to be revoked ;“due to a clerical error in the physical document that was signed by the Secretary of State”;

• the Assured Tenancies and Agricultural Occupancies (Forms) (England) (Amendment) and Suspension (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020, laid on 1 September 2020, made changes needed to prescribed tenancy-related forms which the Coronavirus Act 2020 (Residential Tenancies: Protection from Eviction) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 had omitted to make;

• the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions (Arrangements, Reconstructions and Administration) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2020 had to be laid on 9 September 2020 because the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions (Arrangements, Reconstructions and Administration) (Amendment) and Consequential Amendments Order 2020 had made  two small legislative changes which were “errors”. The mistake also necessitated the laying of the Pension Protection Fund (Moratorium and Arrangements and Reconstructions for Companies in Financial Difficulty) (Amendment and Revocation) Regulations 2020 on 15 September 2020;

• the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (North East of England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, laid on 18 September 2020 after they came into force at 00.01 the same day, corrected  typographical errors “caused by a system error” in the original North East of England Regulations, laid 17 hours earlier;

• the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Local COVID-19 Alert Level) (High) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 had to be made on 30 October 2020 in order to correct drafting errors in the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Local COVID-19 Alert Level) (High) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020, made earlier the same day.

In addition, some Coronavirus-related SIs or their Explanatory Memorandums have contained minor mistakes (such as typographical errors) which have been addressed through the issuing of correction slips. Other Explanatory Memorandums have had to be withdrawn and replacements laid.

Errors in SIs and their supporting documentation are not confined to Coronavirus-related instruments. However, these instances nevertheless reflect the time and resource pressures under which government departments are operating during the pandemic.

In one especially notable but unusual case, the Department of Health and Social Care laid before Parliament a Coronavirus-related SI that did not need to be laid. In an exchange with the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (JCSI), the Department acknowledged that the SI had been laid before Parliament in error.