HANSARD
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation etc.) (Revocation) (England) Regulations 2022
- Considered in Grand Committee
- 4:37 pm
- Moved by
- That the Grand Committee do consider the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation etc.) (Revocation) (England) Regulations 2022.Relevant document: 31st Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee
- My Lords, over the course of this pandemic, we have had to put in place curbs on our liberties. Many of those curbs would at one time have seemed intolerable, but they were part of our national effort to slow the spread of the virus. We have now reached the position that we have been waiting for ever since this national effort began: a time when we can roll back some of the rules that have governed our lives over the past two years.We are able to take this step because of the incredible progress that we have made; I thank noble Lords for alluding to that in the previous debate. When this virus first arrived, we knew very little about it. People were dying. There was no vaccine. We had to make tough decisions to protect our loved ones, our healthcare staff and the British people while we built up the defences to make us safe.Since then, our vaccination programme has put more than 140 million doses in arms. That has included a booster programme where we were the first major European nation to boost half our population. It has resulted in more than 70% of adults in England receiving the booster, including 93% of those aged 70 and over. Vaccines have given us greater protection and slowed down the advance of the virus. They have allowed us cautiously to open up the country and attempt some return to normal life. The scientific protection that we have built up, together with our greater understanding of the virus, has shifted the odds.We must be quite clear that our fight against the virus is not over, but we are now able to take a different approach, moving away from legal curbs towards an approach based on personal responsibility and public health guidance, where we trust people to make the right decision for themselves, for their loved ones and for those around them. I hope that noble Lords will bear with me while I talk through each measure in turn.
- My Lords, I thank my noble friend, both for his Answer to my Question earlier, which I would like to pursue in more depth here, and for moving the regulations today. I also pay tribute to the work that he, the ministerial team and the department have done. They have worked exceptionally hard in challenging circumstances. I declare my interest as an adviser to the board of the Dispensing Doctors’ Association.I understand, as my noble friend said in response to my Question earlier, that the department and the Government are reaching a balance in living with Covid. The context of these regulations must be set against that background. My concern is that we are still relying on the vaccination programme. I pause and say how welcome the vaccination and booster programme has been. I particularly welcome the fourth jab being rolled out to the most vulnerable. It seems slightly patchy: we heard earlier that some in London have a date for their vaccination, but hearsay and anecdotal evidence are that people are being told that they will have a vaccination but have no date yet.My main concern is simply this. The Secretary of State has said publicly, and my noble friend has repeated it in the House and in Committee today, that the Government hope to respond and keep the development of the pandemic under review. I welcome that but my concern is very simple: that we are removing all the tools to enable the Government to do so.
- 4:45 pm
- I was sent a helpful briefing by the BMA in preparation for my Question earlier, which is also helpful in responding to the regulations before us. The changes already undertaken include that testing in schools was, apparently, removed on 21 February and, on 24 February, that the legal requirements to self-isolate following a positive test were removed. I presume that also applies to employers ensuring that they act responsibly in allowing someone who has tested positive to refrain from working. On 24 March, there will be a removal of provisions of support: the Covid-19 provisions within the statutory sick pay and employment support allowance regulations will be removed then, while 1 April sees the removal of guidance and free testing. My noble friend referred to the new guidance and it would be extremely helpful if the Committee could be told this afternoon when that guidance will be published. Perhaps we could have sight of it if it is available.
- If we remove the free testing, doctors are extremely concerned that we are going to have a two-tier type of system. There will be those who feel they can afford the testing and, if they test positive, that they would not present themselves at work but could stay at home—I think all of us in this place would fall into that category. However, there are those already finding the cost of living very difficult, including the cost of energy and the high level of inflation, quite before we had the hostilities with Russia invading Ukraine.
- Does the Minister honestly believe, in his heart of hearts, that people are going to test in those circumstances if they feel they cannot afford either to do so or, more importantly, to stay away from work because that would put themselves and their families at some risk? We have to accept that in many households now, there might be only one breadwinner as a result of Covid. I can see that the Government are caught in this trap between trying to get people back to work and trying to learn to live with Covid.
- I would like to put another question to the Minister. The level of infections may spiral; we are seeing 220,000-plus infections a day. While I realise it is not as dangerous as before, that is down to the excellent work of the vaccinations and those who delivered them, including the Government who paid for those vaccinations. It has been a public health programme and that has been very welcome. I cannot remember whether it was the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, or the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, who said earlier that there are about 2 million infections in total at the moment. That is a quite staggering amount.
- I will admit that my family have probably done 100 years’ service between them in the health service. I am quite pleased that none of them is still in practice at the moment, because the BMA and practitioners are concerned that free tests are going to go, along with the responsibility for employers to ensure that their staff are not coming in with Covid. Also, there is no legal obligation to self-isolate—I think that is from now on—while, from 1 April, the self-isolation support payments will go.
- We seem to be facing a potential storm. In Denmark where I have family, I have watched exactly the same thing happen. They lifted all the restrictions at once, and there was a veritable storm. There was then a new mutation, a new variant. Thankfully it was not a very dangerous one, but it has helped to fill the hospitals. For someone such as my aunt, who feels particularly vulnerable because she is now in her mid-80s—I do not think she has been offered a second booster or a fourth jab—this is obviously very worrying.
- I shall stop speaking, because otherwise I risk repeating myself. Those are my concerns: that the Government are saying, “We’re going to respond to a sudden upsurge, but we’re going to take away the tools for doing so.” As we lift the restrictions in the regulations before us today, I ask my noble friend the Minister to look at the situation in July last year, when, with the schools still sitting, there was an uptick.
- My noble friend referred to the responsibilities of local authorities, which will have powers taken away from them under these regulations but will rely on the existing regulations. He did not say what resources would be made available to local authorities. I follow developments in North Yorkshire as closely as I can. I know that there is real concern there about looking after particularly vulnerable people, both in hospitals and in care homes. Will he say whether any extra resources are being given? In local authorities such as North Yorkshire and others across the country, London included, if it transpires that the big uptick in Covid cases leads to a surge, will he confirm that healthcare workers delivering care in hospital settings, homes and care homes will be alerted if a close relative has Covid, in the sense of their potentially needing to self-isolate in those circumstances?
- My Lords, I have another brief question for the Minister. I preface it by paying tribute to the wonderful work of the NHS, the department and the Minister, and in particular to the scientists who have been involved in producing the vaccines, on whom we all depend.This little debate is part of the business of living with Covid. I am delighted to hear that the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, has recovered from his brief infection. That is a hopeful lesson for us all, as a number of members of my family, despite being vaccinated, have also recently got it, including my pregnant daughter-in-law, so we hope all turns out well.As the Explanatory Memorandum to the statutory instrument says:“The Self-Isolation Regulations played a vital and necessary role in breaking the chains of transmission.”How will this SI be translated into the official advice on travel to and from the UK? I know that it is not his department; nevertheless, I presume that the regulations will change the nature of the advice given by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
- My Lords, just before the Grand Committee started, I heard a bit of a discussion about why this Motion was in Grand Committee today while I had a regret Motion tabled for the Chamber on Thursday. I had wanted to do just the regret Motion in the Chamber, but the Government Whips’ Office said that was not possible given the timing, so the only offer available was, essentially, for this statutory instrument to be heard twice. I apologise for that, but unfortunately it was the only possibility.The lifting of the self-isolation regulations in England at the end of this month seems extraordinary and way too early. Only a couple of days ago, the World Health Organization reminded nations like the United Kingdom that, even when a virus becomes endemic, it needs managing, including by testing, self-isolation and mask wearing. Even if they are not required by regulation and law, the World Health Organization said that the message and communications from a Government are vital in ensuring that people take personal care in what they do.We are still learning about the long-term effects of Covid. Recent research studies, published in the last two or three weeks, into long Covid are showing cardiac, respiratory and neurological problems that are already having consequences. In the future, it will be absolutely vital to watch for the currently not visible long-term consequences of Covid-19. There is an excellent book by Laura Spinney called Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World, which has a good chapter near the end on the early deaths of Spanish flu survivors in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic. Such early deaths went on for two to three decades—interestingly, often with heart, stroke and respiratory problems. Without surveillance and self-isolation, we risk living with Covid at a very high level, and the consequences for the population may become apparent only when it is too late.The problem with the living with Covid plan, which was announced on 24 February, was that the Prime Minister called it yet another freedom day and public behaviour has already changed. One doctor said on Twitter today that they are abused on the Tube for wearing a mask on their way to work. That is because there is not a strong clear message to people that living with Covid means that we still have to be careful about it. Can I ask the Minister—as I have asked him on many occasions before—whether the Government plan to have a strong communications message about these changes and about people taking personal care?
- 5:00 pm
- On Thursday, a large number of tracing staff were told that they were being made redundant at the end of March, which was a surprise to them as they had been told only a week earlier that they would be contracted until the end of July at the earliest. If local test and trace will be doing this work, has there been an uplift in local budgets to cover the main central test and trace centres closing down?