Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations: A Rule of Law Analysis

Executive Summary

This Report provides Rule of Law criteria to assist MPs in their scrutiny of the newest coronavirus national lockdown Regulations for England.

The Regulations ought to be necessary and proportionate to restrict the transmission of coronavirus.

The Regulations satisfy the Rule of Law criteria that they are time-limited.

As part of the requirement to be proportionate, the Regulations ought to have a scientific basis, and if the science is not followed, there ought to be a clear reason advanced for this.

The Regulations need to have democratic legitimacy, and MPs may ask if the rushed process for making them and the lack of nuanced scrutiny undermine this legitimacy and their effectiveness.

MPs may wish to ask the Government how it plans to make these new Regulations easily accessible to citizens.

The Report concludes with scrutiny on points of detail where there are some minor technical deficiencies in the Regulations.