Coronavirus Bill will be rushed through in TWO WEEKS: sweeping new powers in place before April

Sweeping laws giving authorities emergency powers to tackle the coronavirus pandemic will be in place before the end of March, the Government said today.  

A Coronavirus Bill is due to be put before MPs next week with the aim of Royal Assent being granted the following week, putting in place a range of temporary measures.

Moves expected to be in the bill include relaxation of rules governing the amount of time lorry drivers can spend on the road and loosening of time limits for deliveries to ensure supermarkets are supplied. 

The emergency legislation will also include sick pay for quarantined workers from day one and steps to allow more witnesses in court cases to appear via videolink.

Measures making it easier for lapsed or retired medical staff to return to work in an emergency are also expected, along with a cutting of red tape governing schools, allowing teachers and pupils to move to different sites.

Medical appointments via webcam will also be in the ‘beast of a bill’, whose powers will be strictly time limited, No 10 indicated.

With the Labour opposition expected to support the bill, its passage into law should be swift. 

It came as Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth called on the Government to move into the ‘explain stage’ and be transparent about the data behind its decisions to maintain public confidence.

He told the BBC: ‘The Government do need to be clearer with the British public as to why their strategy is correct and the strategy in Ireland or Spain is incorrect.

‘That’s why say if the Government can publish more of the science, if they can publish the modelling they are basing their decisions on, if they can explain the assumptions and judgments they are making about human behaviour and allow scientists, other experts experts in the field, to stress test it, to peer review it, I think that will help maintain public confidence.’

The UK’s chief scientific adviser said it is hoped the Government’s approach to tackling coronavirus will create a ‘herd immunity’ to the disease.

Sir Patrick Vallance said some of the social distancing measures put in place by the Government, including self-isolating for seven days if symptoms develop, are ‘actually quite extreme’.

His comments come after former health secretary Jeremy Hunt questioned the Government’s decision not to cancel large gatherings after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned many more families would ‘lose loved ones before their time’.

Sir Patrick told the BBC that the advice the Government is following is not looking to ‘suppress’ the disease entirely but to help create a ‘herd immunity in the UK’ while protecting the most vulnerable from it.

Asked if there is a fear that clamping down too hard on its spread could see it return, Sir Patrick said: ‘That is exactly the risk you would expect from previous epidemics.

‘If you suppress something very, very hard, when you release those measures it bounces back and it bounces back at the wrong time.

‘Our aim is to try and reduce the peak, broaden the peak, not suppress it completely; also, because the vast majority of people get a mild illness, to build up some kind of herd immunity so more people are immune to this disease and we reduce the transmission, at the same time we protect those who are most vulnerable to it.

‘Those are the key things we need to do.’