On Monday 4 January 2021, the Prime Minister announced that the Government will be introducing new national COVID-19 measures in England to protect the NHS and save lives.

The SIA has spoken with the Home Office to obtain information and guidance for individuals and security businesses/employers in the sector to enable them to consider working requirements during the on-going period.

A security operative is considered a critical worker if they are deployed in the following:

• critical security provision in hospitals, social care, the courts, government estate buildings, as well as key supermarkets/food supply chain, the transport network and critical national infrastructure and utilities
• roles essential to supporting law and order, or which have the potential to limit any further likely pressures on the Police or national emergency services – this could include the guarding of empty or closed commercial property judged at risk, closed retail sites or sensitive office premises, or the monitoring of similar through CCTV or other remote means, and the provision of alarm response centres including mobile units

If you are providing essential security to a service which itself remains critical and functioning, which attracts critical worker status, then you are likely to be covered. If in doubt, check with whoever contracts for your services.

To further assist in determining locally which private security roles are critical, decisions will need to be taken on a case-by-case basis by those contracting security provision and security businesses/employers. Any access to school places is role dependent and will be decided on by the relevant local authority.

These are challenging and unprecedented times. The questions arising are not easy and no-one else can answer them for you. You will need to apply judgement, with the aim of following the Government’s guidance and always minimising social contact where possible.

For further information please refer to the Government’s guidance published on GOV.UK.

Legal aid eligibility criteria has changed and will now allow more people to access justice in civil cases of law.

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) has implemented the changes made to the regulations to ensure that claimants of specific compensation schemes are not disadvantaged in applying for legal aid.

LAA Chief Executive, Jane Harbottle said:

I welcome this change as it will ensure that many more people are able to access the justice they need.

The Legal Aid Agency has worked to implement these important changes as quickly as possible and I would like to acknowledge this work to support families experiencing difficult circumstances.

There will now be a mandatory disregard for these 6 schemes, when applying for civil legal aid:

• Relevant Infected Blood Support Schemes covering England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland (and earlier support schemes)
• Payments under the Vaccine Damage payment Act
• Compensation for person diagnosed with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)

In addition, there will be a discretionary approach applied to these 4 schemes:

As a result of receiving a compensation payment from these compensation schemes or any connected payment (e.g. to a relative) some individuals applying for legal aid would have failed the financial eligibility criteria if the change to the means test had not been made, due to such payments being considered as income or capital.

Mortgage cap removal

The legislation also removes the existing cap on the amount of mortgage debt that can be deducted from a property’s value, so that all mortgage debt will be deducted. This means that more individuals will pass the financial eligibility criteria for civil legal aid. This change will come into effect from 28 January 2021.

Further information

Disregard of payments from Infected Blood Support Schemes (and other specified compensation payments) guidance – full information for legal aid providers

To address this worldwide public health crisis, Access Consortium members are collaborating to advance the regulatory science needed to support the rapid development of diagnostic tests, as well as vaccines and treatments against COVID-19. Members are committed to sharing vital information as we all investigate and evaluate medical products for quality, safety and efficacy, and strive to ensure that the benefits of any new medical product outweigh its risks.

During these unprecedented times, the Consortium is building on its proven ability to benefit from work-sharing that has recently led to the approval of numerous medicines. Consortium members remain committed to review and collaborate on COVID-19 vaccine candidates and treatment options, with the goal of expediting their review and availability on the market. Through this partnership, Access will reduce regulatory duplication and increase each agency’s capacity to ensure that, globally, there is access to high-quality, safe and effective solutions to address the COVID-19 emergency.

We remain committed to work together to find innovative solutions to counter COVID-19, the largest, most severe and most complex international disease outbreak in a generation.

Notes

• The Access Consortium was formed in 2007 by ‘like-minded’ regulatory authorities to promote greater regulatory collaboration and alignment of regulatory requirements.

• The Consortium was initially formed by the regulatory authorities from Australia (Therapeutic Goods Administration), Canada (Health Canada), Singapore (Health Sciences Authority), and Switzerland (Swissmedic). More recently, the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency joined the Consortium.

• Its goal is to maximise international cooperation, reduce duplication, and increase each agency’s capacity to ensure consumers have timely access to high quality, safe and effective therapeutic products.

Following the introduction of new restrictions, as part of the national lockdown in England, the IPO’s London office has been closed to all but critical workers with immediate effect.

This means that customers are unable to gain access to file in person. It also means that the London post room is not operating so no paperwork will be processed after today (Thursday 7 January).

If customers need to submit papers by post then Concept House, our Newport office, remains open.

The London office will remain closed at least until 18 February when current restrictions will be reviewed.

If you have any further questions please contact our Information Centre on 0300 300 2000 or at information@ipo.gov.uk.