Infected people who do not stay home could face arrest

THE BATTLE to contain the coronavirus pandemic includes plans to give the police powers to arrest people with Covid-19 who are not self-isolating.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said “we will stop at nothing” in tackling the Covid-19 outbreak, as he detailed a series of severe measures which the Government is considering.

Mr Hancock confirmed a report that emergency legislation being drawn up by the Government will include allowing police the power to arrest infected citizens.

“We are going to take the powers to make sure that we can quarantine people if they are a risk to public health, yes, and that’s important,” Mr Hancock said yesterday.

“I doubt that actually we will need to use it much because people have been very responsible.”

The emergency powers will be set out tomorrow before the legislation is outlined in a Bill due to be published on Thursday, Mr Hancock said.

Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth asked for reassurance from the Government about some of the “very stringent powers” which Ministers hope to introduce.

Meanwhile, the general secretary of the Prison Officers Association,

Steve Gillan, has revealed that releasing prisoners to prevent the spread of coronavirus “may come in the future”.

Mr Gillan said the coronavirus situation in prisons is “unprecedented” for both prisoners and staff. He added: “This is one of the most critical issues going and I’m pleased to say we’re working constructively with government and with employers.”

In response to the international coronavirus outbreak, Iran has freed tens of thousands of prisoners to prevent the spread of the illness behind bars.

When asked if releasing some prisoners was in the contingency plan, Mr Gillan said: “Not as yet, but previous governments have done what was called an executive release of prisoners, that may come in the future to free up spaces in prisons.”

He explained this could be in the form of temporary release or the release of prisoners towards the end of their sentences, and added: “The Secretary of State has the powers to look at lowrisk category prisoners and just release them as that executive release.” Mr Gillan said a limited amount of single-capacity cells in the prison system would cause problems, while 75 prisoners are currently in isolation.

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