Impact: Covid-19
In March 2020, the UK Government introduced the Coronavirus Act in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. We worked with people, public body staff and policy-makers to support them to understand the impact of the pandemic and new laws and regulations on human rights and to advocate for themselves, their loved ones and the people they support.
Parliamentary Briefings
The Coronavirus Bill was set before Parliament on the afternoon of Thursday 19 March 2020.
The JCHR opened an inquiry into the Coronavirus Bill on the day it was laid before Parliament. We responded with evidence from 230 people accessing services and public body staff across England, Scotland and Wales.
On 24 March 2020, we published a briefing for parliamentarians on the Coronavirus Bill raising human rights concerns about the potential impact on people with care, health and education needs.
Policy Work in Scotland
To ensure continued oversight of emergency powers, the Scottish Government had to produce a report every two months to the Scottish Parliament on the use of the Coronavirus and the Coronavirus (Scotland) Acts.
On 18 June 2020, we published a briefing on the first progress report to Scottish Parliament called: "the human rights risks of the use of emergency powers without transparent communications or robust monitoring mechanisms".
On 02 July 2022, we led a group of organisations working across the UK in writing to the Scottish Parliament Equalities & Human Rights Committee about our concerns with the first progress report.
On 11 August 2020, we responded to the second progress report to Scottish Parliament welcoming actions taken to protecting human rights but raising concerns about emergency powers that remained in place.
Joint letter calling on MPs to scrap the Coronavirus Act
On 29 September 2020, we joined charities and human rights groups from across the UK in calling on MPs to scrap the Coronavirus Act. We raised concerns about the disproportionate impact of the Act on ethnic minorities and people in vulnerable situations.
Review of the Coronavirus Act
By the time of the first six-month review of the Coronavirus Act, we had worked directly with 1700 people since the start of the lockdown and wanted to ensure their voices were heard.
In the outcome of the review, we were pleased to see Baroness Uddin specifically drew on the findings of our reports on the impact of the Government’s response to the Covid-19 for people with care and support needs, and raised these concerns in the House of Lords.
Our briefings showed...
15%
over 15% of people experienced the right to life not being protected because of reduced access to services
10%
almost 10% experienced do not resuscitate orders made without involving the person or when the person was under pressure
30%
almost 30% of people experienced care being taken away impacting their right to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment
50%
over 50% of health and care staff experienced restrictions being put in place that negatively impacting people's wellbeing
50%
50% of health and care staff had been told to make decisions that impacted people's right to be free from discrimination
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry: Draft Terms of Reference Consultation
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry was set up to "examine the UK's preparedness and response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and to learn lessons for the future."
In March 2022, the Inquiry held a four-week public consultation on its Terms of Reference (its aims and how it will achieve them), asking what people think should be included.
The final terms of reference have now been published online and we were disappointed to see that the Human Rights Act is not explicitly mentioned although a separate document has been published explaining how the inquiry will use the PANEL principles of human rights in its approach.
The Independent Commission on UK Public Health Emergency Powers
The Independent Commission on UK Public Health Emergency Powers is working to “review the UK's legislative framework and institutional arrangements, alongside Government decision-making during the Covid-19 pandemic.” It will publish a report on its findings in autumn 2023 to help inform planning for future public health emergencies.
On Friday 28th April, our CEO, Sanchita, gave evidence to the Commission, focusing on the way human rights were impacted by the laws created and used during Covid.
Our Explainers
Between March 2020 and December 2021, we created almost 40 explainers covering the new laws and regulations that were being introduced at a rapid pace across the UK. We explained the different rules in the four nations of the UK and the impact of Coronavirus legislation on other laws like mental health laws and education laws.
Many of the laws and regulations introduced around the Covid lockdown period were temporary measures that no longer apply. This page was updated in July 2023 and we have not included links to the explainers that were created in 2020 and 2021 to avoid creating any confusion about the current law. If you would like a copy of any of the explainers, please contact us on info@bihr.org.uk.
Our work with people
We worked with more than 20 partner organisations UK wide, providing direct support to over 700 people. Part of our work included offering two free sessions to empower people with care and support needs and their supporters. 90 people with care and support needs booked our online information sessions and before attending, 100% of people were worried about the impact of Covid-19 on their human rights. After the sessions...
4.3/5
people rated their confidence to self-advocate using human rights language in discussions with decision-makers at 4.3/5
70%
70% of people felt able to challenge decisions about their or their loved ones' care and support
100%
100% of people felt able to challenge poor practice using human rights
Our work with communities
In May 2020, we ran a workshop with Learning Disability England and the #right2home campaign group. After our session, 92% of attendees felt more confident to talk about their human rights when there are decisions about independent living.
Other groups we worked with included HEAR; Carers Scotland; Disability Wales Anabledd Cymru; together in dementia everyday; the Health and Social Care Alliance; Down’s Syndrome Scotland; Carer’s Scotland; and Scottish Autism.
Our work with public bodies
As well as offering bespoke human rights sessions, we hosted two-hour open human rights sessions for staff working in public bodies. After our workshops…
100%
100% of staff were more confident to use human rights to tackle challenges caused by the COVID-19 situation
4.4/5
staff rated their confidence to use human rights at work at 4.4/5
4.5/5
staff rated their confidence to use human rights to tackle COVID-19 challenges at 4.5/5