The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021

Regulation 7(5)

SCHEDULE 9 Workforce tests

Interpretation of this Schedule

1.  In this Schedule—

(a) “P” means a person required to undertake workforce tests under regulation 7 (requirement to undertake workforce tests);

(b) “workforce test” means any of the categories of workforce test described in regulation 7(6).

Requirement after failure to undertake test

2.—(1) Sub-paragraph (2) applies where P fails to undertake a workforce test that P is required by regulation 7 to undertake.

(2) Where this sub-paragraph applies, P must self-isolate in accordance with regulation 2 of the Self-Isolation Regulations until the earlier of—

(a) the end of the 14th day after the day on which P arrived in England; or

(b) the time P obtains a negative result from a workforce test.

(3) P must comply with any applicable obligations in regulation 7(2) during any period that P is required to self-isolate in accordance with sub-paragraph (2).

(4) Where P is required to self-isolate in accordance with sub-paragraph (2), regulation 2(2) of the Self-Isolation Regulations (meaning of self-isolate) applies as if it also permitted P to leave the place of self-isolation where necessary to undertake a workplace test.

Consequences of test results

3.—(1) Where a workforce test undertaken by P in accordance with regulation 7 generates a positive result—

(a) P must as soon as reasonably practicable undertake a further test which complies with the requirements for a day 2 test specified in paragraph 6 of Schedule 8 (mandatory testing after arrival in England), in the circumstances specified in paragraph 10 of that Schedule (other than the circumstances in paragraph 10(2) about when a test must be undertaken);

(b) P must self-isolate in accordance with regulation 2 of the Self-Isolation Regulations until the end of the 10th day after the day P undertook the test.

(2) Where sub-paragraph (1) applies—

(a) if the test taken by P was a workforce test undertaken for day 2, P is not required to undertake a workforce test for day 5 or day 8;

(b) if the test undertaken by P was a workforce test undertaken for day 5, P is not required to undertake a workforce test for day 8.

(3) Where a further test undertaken in accordance with sub-paragraph (1)(a) generates a negative result, this paragraph applies to P from the time P is notified of that negative result as if the workforce test undertaken by P in accordance with regulation 7 had generated a negative result (and accordingly, from that time, P is no longer required to self-isolate).

(4) Paragraph 11(4) and (5) (notification of test results) of Schedule 8 applies in relation to a further test undertaken pursuant to sub-paragraph (1)(a) as it applies to a test provider in relation to a test provided under Schedule 8.

(5) Where a workforce test undertaken by P in accordance with regulation 7 generates an inconclusive result, P must as soon as reasonably practicable undertake a further workforce test and that further workforce test is to be treated as a replacement workforce test within the meaning of regulation 7(4).

Duties on employers

4.—(1) An employer with more than 50 employees who is the employer of any person who is required to undertake workforce tests or has responsibility for any agency worker who is required to undertake workforce tests, must take reasonable steps to facilitate the taking of those tests by that person or agency worker in accordance with these Regulations.

(2) In the discharge of the duty under sub-paragraph (1), an employer must have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this paragraph.

(3) In sub-paragraph (1) an employer has responsibility for an agency worker if—

(a) the agency worker is supplied or to be supplied by a person (an “agent”) to the employer under a contract or other arrangements made between the agent and the employer; and

(b) the agency worker is not—

(i) a worker because of the absence of a worker’s contract between the agency worker and the agent or the employer, or

(ii) a party to a contract under which the agency worker undertakes to do the work for another party to a contract whose status is, by virtue of the contract, that of a client or customer of any profession or business undertaking carried on by the agency worker.