BOSS: latest government news

The latest government updates from BOSS’ October newsletter

Job Retention Scheme (JRS) ends

The JRS, aka furlough, came to an end last week, having subsidised 11m jobs at a cost of around £70bn. It’s been reported that the chancellor – and many leading economists – expects redundancies to follow with around one million people still thought to be on the scheme at the end of September. If you need help, please view our HR team’s latest podcast here.

Progress on tackling greenwashing

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – a body of the government – has published the ‘Green Claims Code’ to tackle greenwashing. The code sets out six basic principles and a checklist of key points which businesses need to comply with to ensure that their environmental claims are genuinely green. The checklist does encourage businesses to understand how they are impacting the environment across the whole lifecycle of their business or product. You can read the full CMA guidance here.

Fuel supply latest

The government’s taken some new measures to ease the fuel supply chain. Military tanker drivers are ready to be deployed in London and the South East, where the worst shortages remain. On the admin side, changes have been made to remove the need for driver refresher training to transport certain types of goods, including fuel. This will allow drivers to work at full capability until the crisis abates, without needing to stop for mandatory courses.

Travel rules change

From 4 October the travel rules have changed and the red, amber, green ‘traffic light’ system has been replaced with a single ‘red’ list. If you’re travelling to a non-red list country, you will no longer need to have a pre-departure test before you head back to England. From the end of this month, although you will still be required to have a test on day two after your return, that test can now be a (cheaper) lateral flow test. Anyone returning from a red list country is still required to quarantine for 11 nights at a hotel approved by the government, at a cost of over £2,000. The red list includes many African and South American countries, as well as Indonesia, Mexico and the Philippines.