Covid-19
(Gatherings) (Jersey) Regulations 2020
1 Interpretation
In these
Regulations –
“gathering
control Order” means an Order under Regulation 2(1);
“gathering control
requirement” has the meaning given by Regulation 2(4);
“Medical Officer of
Health” means a person appointed as such under Article 10 of the Loi (1934) sur la Santé
Publique;
“Minister” means the
Minister for Health and Social Services.
2 Gathering control
Orders
(1) The
Minister may by Order declare a period during which a gathering
control requirement applies, by specifying the requirement and declaring
that the period –
(a) starts on a specified
date, being no sooner than the coming into force of the Order; and
(b) ends at the end of a
specified day, being no later than 31 days after the start of the period.
(2) Despite
Article 11(3) of the Interpretation (Jersey)
Law 1954, a provision specifying the end of a period under paragraph (1)(b)
may not be amended other than –
(a) to declare an earlier
end; or
(b) to declare a later end,
being no later than 31 days after the commencement of each Order making
such an amendment.
(3) Before
making a gathering control Order the Minister
must –
(a) consult the Medical
Officer of Health and the Council of Ministers; and
(b) be satisfied that it is
necessary and proportionate, having regard to the foreseeable risk of the
spread of Covid‑19 in Jersey, to make the Order.
(4) A
gathering control requirement is one of the following –
(a) a full prohibition, being
a provision that prohibits a person from taking part in a gathering of more
than a specified number of people, no fewer than 10;
(b) a conditional
prohibition, being a provision that prohibits a person from taking part in a
gathering of more than a specified number of people, no fewer than 10, if
the gathering involves any one or more of –
(i) being inside a building,
(ii) consuming alcohol,
(iii) singing or shouting,
(iv) engaging in physical
exertion that requires heavy breathing,
(v) any other specified activity or
circumstance, appearing to the Minister, and to the Medical Officer of Health,
to raise the risk of spread of Covid-19 to a dangerous degree; or
(c) a combined prohibition,
being a provision that applies a conditional prohibition, but also applies a
full prohibition in relation to another specified number of people that is higher
than the number specified for the conditional prohibition.
(5) A
child under the age of 12 –
(a) does not contravene a gathering
control requirement by taking part in a gathering; but
(b) is to be counted towards
the specified number of people when assessing whether another person,
aged 12 or over, contravenes a gathering control requirement by taking
part in that gathering.
(6) A
gathering control Order –
(a) may specify the
locations, or descriptions of locations, to which a gathering control requirement
applies, or apply that requirement without limitation as to location; and
(b) may do so in a manner
that includes a person’s home, but not so as to prohibit a group of people who
have the same home from taking part in a gathering in that home without other
people.
(7) A
gathering control Order may impose a requirement –
(a) in
general or in particular circumstances (including by type of gathering), or as
different requirements for different circumstances;
(b) on people generally or on
a particular description of people, or as different requirements for different
descriptions of people;
(c) subject to exceptions,
whether in the form of exemptions or otherwise.
(8) A
gathering control Order that imposes a conditional or combined prohibition on a
particular type of gathering –
(a) may disapply any one or
more, but not all, of clauses (i) to (iv) of paragraph (4)(b) in relation to that type of gathering; and
(b) may include, in relation
to that type of gathering, provision made under paragraph (4)(b)(v) that
is different from provision so made in relation to any other type of gathering.
(9) Paragraphs (6)(a), (7)
and (8)(b) do not limit Article 11(4) of the Interpretation (Jersey)
Law 1954 in its application to the power to make a gathering control
Order.
3 Power to direct person
to take steps or to leave an area
(1) Paragraph (2)
applies if a police officer, or an enforcement officer of a description
specified by Order under paragraph (6), has reasonable grounds to suspect
that a person is contravening a gathering control requirement imposed on that
person by a gathering control Order.
(2) The
officer may direct the person to do either or both of the following –
(a) to take reasonable steps
specified by that officer to cease, within a time specified by that officer, to
contravene that requirement;
(b) to leave an area,
specified by that officer, within a time specified by that officer, and not to
return to that area within a further time specified by that officer.
(3) A
person commits an offence, and is liable to a fine of level 2 on the
standard scale, if the person –
(a) has contravened a
gathering control requirement imposed on that person by a gathering control
Order; and
(b) wilfully fails to comply
with a direction given to the person under this Regulation in relation to that
contravention.
(4) The
whole or part of a direction is to be disregarded for the purpose of paragraph (3)(b)
to the extent that –
(a) the time specified in it,
to cease contravention of a gathering control requirement or to leave an area,
is shorter than is reasonable in the circumstances;
(b) the further time specified
in it, in relation to return to the area, is longer than whichever is the
shorter of –
(i) 3 hours, or
(ii) a shorter period that is
reasonable with a view to preventing a resumption of the contravention;
(c) it specifies an area that
is broader than reasonably appears to the officer to be necessary for the purpose of preventing a resumption of the
contravention;
(d) it includes the person’s home
in the specified area, or includes leaving the person’s home in the specified
steps;
(e) it prevents the person
attending, at a time when the person is required or expected to attend there,
at a place that the person is –
(i) required to attend for the purpose of the
person’s employment or work,
(ii) required to attend by an
obligation imposed by or under an enactment or by an order of a court or
tribunal, or
(iii) expected to attend for
the purpose of education or training or receiving medical treatment;
(f) it does not comply with
any other restriction on directions that is specified by the Minister in the
gathering control Order.
(5) If
paragraph (2) applies the officer must have regard, when considering
whether to give a direction or what direction to give, to any guidance
published for that purpose by the Medical Officer of Health as to factors that
increase the risk of spread of Covid‑19 in gatherings.
(6) A
gathering control Order may specify any of the following descriptions of person
as enforcement officers –
(a) an enforcement officer
within the meaning of the Covid‑19
(Screening, Assessment and Isolation) (Jersey) Regulations 2020, other
than a police officer;
(b) a health officer within
the meaning of those Regulations.
4 Citation, commencement
and expiry
(1) These
Regulations may be cited as the Covid-19 (Gatherings) (Jersey) Regulations 2020.
(2) These
Regulations come into force on the day after they are made.
(3) These
Regulations expire at the end of 30th April 2022.[2]