The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 5) Regulations 2021

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Part 2A of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 enables the Welsh Ministers, by regulations, to make provision for the purpose of preventing, protecting against, controlling or providing a public health response to the incidence or spread of infection or contamination in Wales.

These Regulations are made in response to the serious and imminent threat to public health which is posed by the incidence and spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Wales.

These Regulations amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/1609 (W. 335)) (“the principal Regulations”). The amendments–

(a)

extend the expiry date of the principal Regulations to 28 May 2021;

(b)

revoke restrictions on pupils and students attending schools and further education colleges;

(c)

clarify that premises that are closed to the public, such as theatres, may be used to rehearse for a performance;

(d)

provide that a sporting event at which the only people present are elite athletes and persons working or providing voluntary services at the event, is not prohibited under the restrictions that apply at Alert Level 3;

(e)

make minor technical changes to the provisions relating to the process for people agreeing to form extended households, to reflect the fact that not all households contain a person aged 18 or over;

(f)

replicates changes previously made to the Alert Level 4 restrictions, that enabled under 18s who live alone to form an extended household, for Alert Levels 1, 2 and 3;

(g)

make temporary modifications to the restrictions and requirements applying to an Alert Level 4 area under Schedule 4 to the principal Regulations, which—

(i)

extend the duration of the temporary modifications previously made to the end of the day on 26 March 2021;

(ii)

from 13 March 2021, change the prohibition in paragraph 1 of Schedule 4 on leaving the place where a person is living (without a reasonable excuse) so that it becomes a prohibition on leaving the area local to the place where the person is living (without a reasonable excuse);

(iii)

from 13 March 2021, provide that a person has a reasonable excuse to leave the area local to the place where they are living, and to gather, when visiting a friend or relative in a care home, as long as they have the permission of the person responsible for the care home;

(iv)

from 13 March 2021, provide that up to 4 people (not including children under 11 or carers) from no more than 2 households may gather outdoors, including in private gardens, for any purpose;

(v)

from 13 March 2021, provide that a sporting event at which the only people present are elite athletes and persons working or providing voluntary services at the event is not prohibited;

(vi)

from 15 March 2021, allowing hair salons and barbers to open for the purposes of cutting, styling or colouring hair (only), by appointment;

(vii)

from 13 March 2021, allowing outdoor sports and exercise facilities to open;

(viii)

from 22 March 2021, provide that supermarkets and other shops that sell multiple types of goods, which are already open to the public and which mainly sell the goods allowed to be sold in accordance with the Alert Level 4 restrictions, may sell other goods on their premises;

(ix)

from 22 March 2021, allowing garden centres and plant nurseries to open;

(h)

make other minor and consequential changes.

Despite the reasonable excuse to gather for work or to provide voluntary services, and despite the temporary modification to Schedule 4 that allows 4 people from no more than 2 households to gather outdoors for any purposes, provision has been made to prohibit gathering for the purposes of political campaigning (for example, canvassing door to door). Most other activities relating to an election are allowed (for example, going to vote or distributing campaign material).

The Regulations also amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (Functions of Local Authorities etc.) (Wales) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/1011 (W. 235)) to change their expiry date to 28 May 2021 (and make a temporary modification to regulation 6 of those Regulations that is consequential on amendments made to the principal Regulations).

The Welsh Ministers' Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has not been prepared as to the likely cost and benefit of complying with these Regulations.