160 reported Covid violations at Peterborough workplaces

The authority received 163 complaints between March 23, 2020 and January 20, 2021, it has revealed.

The majority of those came last April (50) and in May (33) during the first lockdown.

There were also 29 in October, as well as 16 in December and 17 in the first three weeks of last month.

The fewest number of reported violations was in September (1).

The vast majority of the complaints (92) were for a lack of social distancing, followed by 48 relating to staff face coverings, 14 for inadequate demonstration of risk assessment criteria and nine for failures regarding self-isolation.

Of those complaints, one in May led to a prohibition notice, two in November led to the companies being “verbally advised” and one in December saw a formal warning issued.

No further action was subsequently taken.

In addition, the council paid out £253,000 in £500 Test and Trace Support payments between the start of the national scheme in September 28 and January 15.

This was from 1,898 applications, of which 507 were accepted and 1,117 were refused, while the rest remain pending a decision.

Reasons for refusal were:

. 440 cases due to the Test and Trace reference. This could be either the person did not have one, it was not valid or it did not belong to them

. 227 cases as the person was not employed or self-employed

. 307 cases as the person did not lose income due to isolating

. 556 cases for other reasons (including not providing evidence to support the claim, claiming late or not meeting local criteria for the discretionary scheme).

The payments were for people who would lose income as a result of not being able to work when having to self-isolate.

Peterborough also runs a local discretionary fund.