Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council have been given additional powers to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The local authorities will be able to close individual premises, public outdoor places and prevent specific events under new rules set out by the Government to prevent further local outbreaks.
A spokesman for the government said unitary metropolitan councils, such as Nottingham City Council, and county councils are leading local outbreak planning, within a national framework, and with the support of NHS Test and Trace, PHE and other government departments.
On Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced local authorities would be given more powers to intervene in the event of a local outbreak, such as that seen recently in Leicester.
As part of the announcement, the Prime Minister said larger councils, such as the city and county council will have powers to close individual premises, public outdoor places and prevent specific events.
This means the councils will no longer have to make representations to a magistrate in order to close a premises.
To address more serious and wider-spread cases, the Government said it will be able to existing powers (under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984) to implement more substantial restrictions.
These include:
- closing businesses and venues in whole sectors (such as food production or non-essential retail), or within a defined geographical areas (such as towns or counties)
- imposing general restrictions on movement of people (including requirements to ‘stay at home’, or to prevent people staying away from home overnight stays, or restrictions on entering or leaving a defined area)
- imposing restrictions on gatherings – limiting how many people can meet and whether they can travel in and out of an area to do so
- restricting local or national transport systems – closing them entirely, or introducing capacity limits or geographical restrictions
- mandating use of face coverings in a wider range of public places
