UK | COVID-19: Update on Vaccine Damage Payment and Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
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This week COVID-19 regulatory updates include details about compensation for Covid-19 Vaccine Damage and Northern Ireland guidance on Calculation of a Week’s Pay for employees who have been furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
United Kingdom: The Vaccine Damage Payments (Specified Disease) Order 2020
This Order adds COVID-19 to the diseases to which the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 applies. This means that the British Government will compensate people who suffer extreme Covid-19 vaccine side effects with payments of up tp £120,000 under the existing scheme for common jabs. This order will come into force on 31 December 2020.
England: The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020
These Regulations impose restrictions on gatherings and on businesses in England. Provisions are made especially for Christmas times such as Linked Christmas households. Other general provisions are also provided for Linked households, Linked childcare households, Permitted organised gatherings and The required precautions. These regulations also set up the list for Tier 2 and Tier 3 areas, all the other areas should be treated as Tier 1 areas. You could also find the restrictions applicable to different tier levels. These regulations came into force on 2 December 2020.
Scotland: The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 6) Regulations 2020
These Regulations (which come into force on 4 December 2020) amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (“the principal regulations”).
Regulation 3 adds a new regulation 3B into the principal regulations to modify the application of the principal regulations during the period from and including 23 December 2020 to 27 December 2020.
Regulation 3B(1) modifies regulation 2 of the principal regulations to add a new definition of “holiday gathering” and modifies schedules 2 to 5 of the principal regulations so that attending a holiday gathering is an exception to the restrictions on gatherings in private dwellings in Level 1, 2, 3 and 4 areas and the restrictions on gatherings in outdoor public places in Level 2, 3 and 4 areas. It also modifies schedules 4, 5 and 7A of the principal regulations to add gathering as a holiday gathering to the list of examples of a purpose for which a contravention of the travel restrictions in Level 3 or 4 areas, or within the common travel area, will constitute a reasonable excuse. Regulation 3B(2) further modifies those schedules to make special provision for travel to or from Northern Ireland on 22 December 2020.
Regulation 3B(3) makes interpretative provision relevant to the modifications made by this regulation. Paragraphs (4) to (6) of that regulation make provision relative to the rules for reckoning the numbers involved in holiday gatherings, including to specify that a person may not attend more than one holiday gathering.
Regulation 4 amends schedule 5 of the principal Regulations to allow holiday accommodation in Level 4 areas to be provided to a person attending a marriage ceremony or civil partnership registration or to facilitate shared parenting arrangements.
Northern Ireland: The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (Coronavirus, Calculation of a Week’s Pay) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020
These regulations came into force on 27 November 2020. The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (Coronavirus, Calculation of a Week’s Pay) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 (“the principal Regulations”) set out how a week’s pay is to be calculated in the case of an employee who has been furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (“the CJRS”), for the purposes of calculating:
a) any statutory remuneration for time off to look for employment or arrange training;
b) any statutory notice payment;
c) any statutory sum resulting from a failure to provide a written statement of reasons for dismissal;
d) any statutory sum resulting from a failure to comply with an order for reinstatement or re-engagement;
e) any statutory compensation for unfair dismissal; and
f) any statutory redundancy payment,
to which in each case they are entitled. In such a case the Regulations also set out how a week’s pay is to be calculated for the purpose of deciding whether an employee is taken to be on short-time for statutory purposes.
The CJRS was extended by the Coronavirus Act 2020 Functions of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme) Direction, given by the Treasury under sections 71 and 76 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 on 13th November 2020. These Regulations make amendments to the principal Regulations consequent on the extension of the CJRS.