The government has set out its Living with COVID-19 plan for removing the remaining legal restrictions in England while protecting people most vulnerable to COVID-19. From an employment perspective, from 24 February 2022:

• those testing positive for COVID-19 are no longer legally required to self-isolate – individuals who test positive continue to be advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for at least five full days and then continue to follow government guidance until they have received two negative test results on consecutive days
• close contacts who are not fully vaccinated are no longer legally required to self-isolate
• workers are no longer legally obliged to tell their employers when they are required to self-isolate.

From 25 March 2022, the government will remove the COVID-19 provisions within the statutory sick pay (SSP) regulations. From this date, SSP will no longer be payable from day one if employees are unable to work because they are sick due to COVID-19, and pre-pandemic SSP rules will apply. In addition, the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme (SSPRS) for employers with fewer than 250 employees will close on 17 March 2022. Employers will then have until 24 March 2022 to submit any new claims to the SSPRS for absence periods up to 17 March 2022, or to amend any claims already submitted.

From 1 April 2022, the government will:

• update its guidance setting out the ongoing steps that individuals with COVID-19 should take to minimise contact with other people – they will be encouraged to exercise personal responsibility
• no longer provide free universal symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public in England
• remove the health and safety requirement for every employer to explicitly consider COVID-19 in their risk assessments
• replace the existing set of “Working Safely during COVID-19” guidance with new public health guidance.

Employers should consider their approach in the light of the staged removal of restrictions, taking into account that self-isolation for COVID-positive people remains advised (but is not legally required) until 1 April 2022. For example, will employees who have COVID-19 but are asymptomatic, or otherwise well enough to work, be permitted to attend the workplace, or will they be asked to stay at home? If the latter, will that approach change from 1 April 2022 when the guidance is updated so that those testing positive will no longer be advised to stay at home but instead will be encouraged to exercise personal responsibility?

Source: New feed