6 October 2020 Last week, the Coronavirus Act (“the Act”) was subjected to its six-month review in Parliament. The Act is in force for two years, with its temporary provisions subject to review every six months. This was the first six-month review of the temporary provision of the Act. Under the Act, only the House of Commons has to approve a motion of the Act to continue every six months. There is very limited possibility for the Act to be amended or changed, unless this change is put forward by the Government. When the Act was first being discussed in March, we raised serious concerns about the “review” process and the lack of parliamentary scrutiny. MPs have little means to change it, and the House of Lords do not even have a specific approval role. Nonetheless, both Houses held debates for the six-month review.   Ahead of the review, we published Briefings outlining our concerns around the impact of the Act on h…

This post was originally published on British Institute of Human Rights News .