On the 24th February, the UK Government ended any remaining legal coronavirus restrictions in England. This included the removal of the requirement to self-isolate.
However, the HSE, charged with enforcing COVID control in the workplace, will still expect employers to continue to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in line with risk assessing.The following workplace controls remain:
- adequate ventilation
- sufficient cleaning
- good hand hygiene
- consultation with your workforce on health and safety matters, talking to workers and their representatives helps to reduce risk
Employers may introduce workplace Lateral Flow testing, which will be at their expense, particularly as the free provision of both lateral flow and PCR tests will cease in Apr 2022. Employers that are considering this, can get good advice on its implementation from the ACAS website: https://www.acas.org.uk/working-safely-coronavirus/testing-staff-for-coronavirus
