What's New

As long ago as 2019, the UK Government confirmed that, following the decision to leave the EU, it was introducing the “UK GDPR” which is essentially the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) with necessary changes such as introducing references to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in place of the European Commission.

NHS Chief Executive Sir Simon Stevens announced last week that all people aged 18 years or over are now being urged to get a Covid-19 vaccination if they have not yet had one.

Following the decision by the UK Government to delay the lifting of the remaining Covid-19 restrictions (see Freedom day moved back by four weeks), the Welsh and Scottish Parliaments have now given their own updates.

A powerful new regulator will be created to protect the rights of UK workers, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has confirmed.

A further easing of Covid-19 restrictions and the reopening of more sectors of the economy spurred a marked increase in hiring activity in May, according to the latest UK Report on Jobs survey by KPMG and REC ( Recruitment and Employment Confederation).

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced that people working in CQC-registered care homes will need to be fully Covid-19 vaccinated, with both doses, as a condition of deployment.

A minority of employers are breaching official guidance by forcing staff to “needlessly” work in offices and other workplaces according to the TUC which argues that this is part of a wider health and safety enforcement crisis.

It is now five months since the end of the transition period when the UK finally left the European Union but cases referred from British courts are still working their way through the EU legal system and an important one has just concluded.

On 16 June 2021, news reports indicated that the Government is set to confirm, in a few days, that it will make the Covid-19 vaccine compulsory for care home staff. Initial reports indicate that affected staff will be given 16 weeks to have the vaccine or face being redeployed or lose their job. It is estimated that 10,000 care homes will be affected and will apply to the following care homes:

Given the widespread pessimistic predictions in the days leading up to his announcement, it would have been a major surprise if the Prime Minister had said that the final stage of his roadmap to freedom had been successfully completed.