COVID-19 update: the latest guidance for businesses

Testing

• Universal free lateral flow testing has ended
• Free tests are still available to certain sections of the population, including eligible patients and NHS and care staff.

Certification

• The guidance on voluntary COVID-status certification in domestic settings will be removed, as well as the recommendation for certain venues use the NHS COVID Pass.

Guidance 

• The ‘Working Safely’ guidance for employers has been replaced with a set of public health principles for reducing the spread of respiratory infections, including COVID-19, in the workplace
• The health and safety requirement for employers to explicitly consider COVID-19 in their risk assessments has been removed.

If a member of staff is unwell with symptoms of a respiratory infection, such as COVID-19, they should follow the guidance for people with symptoms of a respiratory infection such as COVID-19.

Employers, in accordance with their legal obligations, may wish to consider how best to support and enable their workforce to follow this guidance as far as possible.

Yes. Employers can provide free LFD testing to their employees.

HMRC have also extended the Income Tax exemption and National Insurance contributions (NICs) disregard on both employer-provided and employer-reimbursed coronavirus diagnostic tests throughout 2022-2023. This means that employers who provide their employees with coronavirus diagnostic tests do not need to report this as a benefit in kind to HMRC. However, this exemption does not apply to coronavirus antibody tests.

For further information, please see HMRC’s Tax Information and Impact Note.

To guide employers, the government maintains a list of private testing providers, which is constantly reviewed. This identifies the providers who have declared that they meet the minimum legal and regulatory standards for private sector providers of COVID-19 testing – including aligning testing use with the scope set out by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Before engaging in testing, businesses will also need to think carefully about their operations and staff, taking learnings from their response to the pandemic to determine what will work best for their organisation. Some questions to consider include:

1. What type of workplace settings will testing be most useful for?
2. Which test will best suit my organisation’s need?
3. What will testing enable my organisation to do?
4. What will the health and safety requirements be?
5. How can I incentivise my workforce to take up/continue testing?
6. How regularly does testing need to be undertaken? How long should I implement testing for?

There is specific guidance for people whose immune system means that they are at higher risk, because they have a reduced ability to fight infections, such as COVID-19. Employers may wish to consider the needs of employees at greater risk from COVID-19, including those whose immune system means they are at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19.

The requirement for every employer to explicitly consider COVID-19 in their health and safety risk assessment has been removed. Employers may choose to continue to cover COVID-19 in their risk assessments. Employers that specifically work with COVID-19, such as laboratories, must continue to undertake a risk assessment that considers COVID-19.

While there is no longer a requirement for all employers to explicitly consider COVID-19 in their statutory health and safety risk assessments, it is important that as a business, organisation or an employer you continue to comply with your legal obligations relating to health and safety, employment and equality duties.

Employers should continue to comply with the requirements for cleaning, ventilation and welfare facilities in the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 or the Construction Design and Management Regulations 2015 to control occupational health and safety risks.

Employers have a duty to consult with their employees, or their representatives, on health and safety matters. The Health and Safety Executive has guidance on how to keep people safe and healthy at work.