The "science" a local council sent me
Their justification for their actions in threatening local businesses and individuals
Below is an actual quote from an answer I received from a FOI request to a local Council about the “science” they have available to justify their actions against businesses and enforcing the wearing of face coverings:
“In terms of the scientific basis for social distancing requirements and Government’s advice, I believe this may have originated from a study undertaken in the 1930s, but that is probably a question you would be better placed directing to the Government. We are following, and will continue to follow, their lead when it comes to the best advice and guidance available to the public about staying alert and staying safe.”.
That’s it.
Sum total of their “science” - and I asked more than one Council the same question and they all answered “we don’t hold that information”.
I did win one battle with a local council though when I challenged their pre-opening checklist that they required businesses to use prior to them being allowed to re-open again after the initial lockdown in 2020.
In a series of e-mails about “covid secure town centres” and risk assessments they stated:
“it could be that the checklist was supplied centrally or that officers simply applied their minds to the prevailing guidance and the sorts of issues businesses would be facing when they sought to re-open.”
So I replied:
“As someone who is working in a legal department surely you realise that a business owner or operator cannot use the defense “I was following guidelines 100%” if there is an incident and they end up in court on a HSE charge? Or will the council have a representative in the court and dock with them as co-defendent as it was the council’s guidelines they were following? It is their business/premises/operations and they should have performed their own risk assessment using their own research and they should have realised the guidelines were inadequate/irrelevant or inappropriate for their operations because if they were sufficient then the “incident” would not have happened or been mitigated.”
So they replied:
“The checklist has now been taken off the County’s website. The Business Enterprise Tenant’s will therefore need to refer to guidance direct from the government website.
In relation to your query raised regarding risk assessments, XXXXX County Council are a landlord for a number of properties, including the Enterprise Centres, which are start-up businesses. The County Council manages the Centres and supports the tenants. However, the responsibility for any risks assessments for their particular business and employees lies directly with the individual tenants. As you will appreciate the businesses on the Enterprise Centres owned by the County Council are diverse and will need to be managed day to day by the Tenants who run those businesses”.
In plain speak - as long as the business has their own evidence based risk assessment as per Health and Safety legislation they can operate and are not required to follow “guidance” issued by anyone at any level - see my previous substack about the legal standing of “guidance”:
