Nearly 4,000 convicted of Covid rule breaches in England since curbs ended
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Nearly 4,000 people in England have been convicted for breaching Covid-19 restrictions since the emergency regime ended more than two years ago, according to a Financial Times analysis of government data.
Criminal defence lawyers said they were surprised by the scale of recent prosecutions, which brings the total number of people convicted in England since restrictions were introduced in March 2020 to 27,600.
Barrister Adam Wagner said: “As time passes, the underlying purpose of the regulations — which was to protect public health — becomes increasingly disconnected from the convictions themselves.”
He added: “There is a reasonable argument that in mid-2024 there is little public interest in proceeding with these prosecutions.”
Ministers have previously said the government did not intend to criminalise large parts of the population for breaches of rules devised at the onset of the pandemic to protect public health.
The emergency measures included requirements to wear face coverings, to self-isolate after infection and for international travellers to provide a test result when entering or leaving the country.
Data from the Ministry of Justice showed 3,990 people were convicted in England for Covid-related offences between March 2022 and December 2023.
While the pace of convictions slowed substantially after 2021, campaigners said it was alarming that people continued to face legal action long after the restrictions were lifted in England at the end of February 2022.
Prosecutions continued in 2023, even after the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 health emergency over last May. About 900 individuals were convicted last year, including almost 40 in the final three months of the year.
Fintan Walker, co-director of the Manchester Innocence Project, which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, said: “A lot of these people were of good character. It’s financially ruined some people and caused some serious harm to their reputation.
“Convictions need to be revisited. There should be some kind of amnesty,” he added.
The aggregated data refers to the dates of convictions, not when the offences took place, although separate magistrates’ court records show that some individuals have been prosecuted for alleged breaches of coronavirus rules that took place as late as 2022.
At one recent court hearing observed by the FT, a man was prosecuted for not wearing a face covering on a bus in London in January 2022.
The man, who did not speak English, missed paperwork sent to him about the case after he gave his house number to an enforcement officer as 42 instead of 41.
The court dismissed the case after a key witness failed to appear. The magistrate said it was “not in the interests of justice” to proceed.
Many were prosecuted using the “single justice procedure”, a contentious judicial mechanism that allows magistrates to deal with minor offences from court papers without a hearing. Critics complain the procedure prevents public scrutiny of court decisions.
Most prosecutions have been against younger people, with four in five convictions handed to under-40s, according to the FT analysis.
A UK government spokesperson said: “The government’s priority during the Covid-19 pandemic was to keep the public safe.
“Decisions to issue FPNs [fixed penalty notices] were made by individual police forces, and if there were concerns around penalties, individuals were entitled to make representations to the issuing force.”
Fixed penalty notices allow offenders to pay a penalty instead of being prosecuted. If an individual opts not to pay an FPN, the matter can be considered by a court.
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