17th December 2021

The statutory sick pay regulations (the Statutory Sick Pay (Medical Evidence) Regulations 1985) have been amended to increase the number of days for which an employee is not required to provide medical evidence of incapacity for work from 7 days to 28 days.

The purpose of this change is to temporarily ease the pressure on GP services to support the coronavirus vaccine booster programme (by reducing the need for employees to visit their GP to get sick notes).

The change takes effect immediately - i.e. from 17th December 2021 - and will last until 26th January 2022.

For employees who were already off sick before 17th December, they will not have to provide a sick note earlier than 28 days if their spell of incapacity as of 17th December has been less than 7 days.

Where a spell of incapacity begins after 26th January the previous rules (i.e. 7 days) will apply.