New law would make affairs to be forgotten
A proposed new law would make it illegal for couples who live in different homes to have indoor romantic liaisons during lockdown. The Health Protection Regulations had previously banned people leaving home without a “reasonable excuse”. But the law put before MPS yesterday said that “no person may participate in a gathering which takes place outdoors and consists of more than six persons, or indoors and consists of two or more persons”.
AN NHS doctor has launched an application to bring a judicial review against the Government’s refusal to reveal the full findings of a secret simulation designed to test the UK’S preparedness for a pandemic.
Dr Moosa Qureshi filed a claim against Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, in the High Court yesterday.
Dr Qureshi and his legal team are seeking to force the Government to release the full findings of Exercise Cygnus, a cross-governmental pandemic dry run carried out in late 2016.
The Department of Health has repeatedly refused to publish Cygnus, citing concerns that doing so could jeopardise the ability of civil servants to speak freely behind the scenes.
However, a document setting out the broad conclusions of Cygnus was leaked to newspapers last month, revealing that the Government had been forewarned of the likely impact of a new disease on care homes.
Whitehall insiders have also disclosed that Cygnus warned the NHS might be overwhelmed, amid shortages of critical care beds, mortuary places and personal protective equipment for front-line health workers.
Represented by the legal firm Leigh Day, Dr Qureshi and a co-claimant – Tommy Greene, a freelance journalist – are seeking “all the findings, lessons or recommendations arising out of Exercise
Cygnus, including reports participants in the exercise”.
They claim that the refusal to publish the Cygnus Report is unlawful under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, under Section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998, a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and unreasonable at common law.
Under the Civil Contingencies Act the Government has a duty to arrange for the publication of assessments made and plans maintained to enable action to be taken in connection with an emergency.
Section 6 of the Human Rights Act requires the Government to comply with Article 10 of the ECHR which gives the public the right to receive information. The Government has insisted that any request for the publication of the report should be made through the Freedom of Information Act 2000. However it has already refused such a request from Dr Qureshi, saying the costs would exceed the limit allowed by the FOIA.
Dr Moosa Qureshi said: “The Health Secretary’s refusal to allow us to learn from a national pandemic exercise ... shows his callous disregard for human life.”
Tessa Gregory, solicitor at Leigh Day, said: “It is difficult to understand why during this public health emergency the Government who have committed themselves to transparency are spending time and resources defending this claim rather than simply providing the information requested.”