By Sheila Mckenzie
A civil liberties group is campaigning to repeal the Coronavirus Act after the prime minister, Boris Johnson, warned that people could be arrested if they breach new social gathering rules.
Fines and arrest has been used since the original lockdown in March, as a tool to ensure compliance with Covid-19 rules. However, some groups are arguing that the consequences for breaching the rules are excessive and not in line with those expected for Public Health regulations.
Critics of the British government say laws more compatible with criminal offences are being imposed on the British public over a matters relevant to public Health. But the government see fines or arrests, if necessary, as the only way to enforce the rules.
Residents of the Uk will be banned from meeting socially in groups of more than six as from Monday. In a televised Downing Street briefing yesterday, Boris Johnson said the ban will be set out in law and ‘anyone breaking the rules risks being dispersed, fined and possibly arrested’.
Rosalind Comyn, policy and campaign officer at Liberty, told a Young Legal Aid Lawyers group meeting that a public health crisis requires a public health response, not a criminal justice one. ‘Trust is a precious commodity in a public health crisis. We should be facilitating compliance with clear messaging rather than control,’ she said.
Liberty has set up a petition calling for the Coronavirus Act, which it says puts criminal justice ahead of public health, to be scrapped. Comyn told the event that the act, which was fast-tracked through parliament before coming into force on 25 March, includes a six-month parliamentary review clause. A parliamentary debate must take place before 3 October.
The act, which contains a wide range of powers, gives public officials in England emergency powers to test, isolate, and detain a person where they have reasonable grounds to think the person is infected, and postpone elections. Comyn says parliament is divided over the range of the legislation.
‘In a few weeks’ time, parliament will have the opportunity to vote on renewing powers in the act. It’s an all or nothing vote. Parliament cannot say “these aspects we would like to keep but these powers can go”. They will vote on a motion to renew or repeal the act. It’s an important opportunity for parliament to assert their concerns about the plan the government is taking,’ she said.
Sir Desmond Swayne, a Conservative MP, told the commons that ‘had the [health secretary] given notice of the government’s intention to further restrict our liberty to meet with one another in his statement yesterday, at least some of us would have been able to question him about it