Dr. David Hughes:

The biggest damage it will do is discredit the Act in the eyes of many workers who see their requirement to be protected being relegated again to the "workers can wait" mantra. That is the difficulty with it. I think the regulatory impact assessment, RIA, going through the HSA will take so long that the Covid emergency may well have passed and workers will feel the Act will not have been used to protect them. I think that opinion is fairly widespread within the workforce. Remember, 19 workplace infections and the economy is practically closed. The figure is 16 in healthcare-related activities and that is last week.