• What were the issues with the legal process during the Covid-19 lockdowns?

• How did the process of enacting emergency regulations work during the pandemic?

• What were the issues with the clarity between law and guidance?

• Should the Civil Contingencies Act have been used instead of the Public Health Act?

• What changes are proposed to improve future emergency law-making?

• How would these changes impact the democratic process during a health emergency?

• What is the response from politicians regarding these recommendations?

Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law

• Final report of the Independent Commission on UK Public Health Emergency Powers, chaired by the Rt Hon Sir Jack Beatson

Hansard Society

• The marginalisation of the House of Commons under Covid has been shocking; a year on, Parliament’s role must urgently be restored (Dr Ruth Fox, Prof Meg Russell, Dr Joe Tomlinson and Dr Ronan Cormacain)

• Coronavirus Act renewal: Into the sunset?

• Building on the 'Brady amendment': how can Parliament scrutinise Coronavirus regulations more effectively?

• Coronavirus Statutory Instruments Dashboard, 2020-2022

House of Lords

• House of Lords Constitution Committee report, Covid-19 and the use and scrutiny of emergency powers

Please note, this transcript is automatically generated. There are consequently minor errors and the text is not formatted according to our style guide. If you wish to reference or cite the transcript copy below, please first check against the audio version above. Timestamps are provided above each paragraph.

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:16:18 You're listening to Parliament Matters, a Hansard Society production, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Learn more at hansardsociety.org.uk/pm. 00:00:16:20 - 00:00:39:21 Welcome to Parliament Matters, the podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy, Parliament itself. I'm Ruth Fox and I'm Mark D'Arcy. This is a special episode where we look at new proposals to deal with health emergencies like Covid 19.

Do you remember this? "You must stay at home."

This month, the final report of the Independent Commission on the UK Public Health Emergency Powers has been published. 00:00:39:23 - 00:01:03:03 This commission is established under the authority of the Bingham Center for the Rule of Law and I and Adam Wagner the barrister have been commissioners looking at how changes can be made to improve the way emergency regulations and legislation are made in the future should we have another health emergency. We went along to talk to Adam about the report. 00:01:06:00 - 00:01:34:06 So here we are at Doughty Street Chambers, the offices of Adam Wagner, the barrister who's been involved in the Independent Commission on UK Public Health Emergency Powers. Essentially a big review of the way the law worked when the government had to introduce emergency restrictions at the outbreak of coronavirus back in 2020. Adam, I suppose the first thing to ask is what was wrong with what happened when those powers were launched, when Boris Johnson told us all to stay at home? 00:01:34:08 - 00:01:57:21 Were there problems with the way the legal process behind that unfolded? I think there were problems which certainly came to light as the pandemic proceeded. And this commission, which was chaired by Sir Jack Beatson and supported by the Bingham Centre, really focused on the rule of law issues, many of which probably could not have been predicted because we didn't know what the nature of Covid 19. 00:01:57:21 - 00:02:29:19 And it was a very specific kind of disease, and it spread in a particular kind of way, and it needed certain kind of restrictions. So we looked at not whether the restrictions themselves were justified. That's something the Covid inquiry is looking at. But when the laws that brought into force the lockdowns, hotel quarantine, the closure of schools, all of those measures which we all remember and were so extreme, certainly the most extreme measures that have been brought in since the Second World War.