Contributions
1,103 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsMy hon. Friend is right. The right thing for us to do as a country is to reflect overall on how we handled the pandemic, on the decisions that we made and, indeed, on how prepared…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsAs the hon. Lady says, care workers were among those on the frontline during the pandemic and they had some incredibly difficult experiences. They took the risk of catching covid…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsThere has already been a legal investigation into some of the aspects that we are talking about today. Given the huge number of decisions that had to be made and the period of…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsMy hon. Friend makes an important point about the challenges that were faced around the world in handling the pandemic, and very conspicuously for us across the UK. Decisions were…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsI do not recognise the hon. Lady’s account at all. If she looks back at one of the legal cases that has looked into this question, she may find more accurate information about…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsI completely agree with my hon. Friend about the covid inquiry being the right place for people to go through the details of what happened—who said what and, as he said, the…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsMy hon. Friend is absolutely right to point out the extraordinary things that were done during the pandemic. I do not think that the Government should seek to take credit for…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsMy hon. Friend is absolutely right about how we ramped up incredibly fast from a capacity of just 3,000 tests a day in March 2020, to more than 38,000 in mid-April, and more than…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsMy hon. Friend is 100% right. The context is absolutely important as part of this conversation. It was a global pandemic about which very little was known and about which we…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsThe questions about the discharge policy have been interrogated on a number of occasions, including by Select Committees. The hon. Gentleman will well know that in general, and in…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsI know how strongly the hon. Member feels about this. Clearly, we are having ongoing conversations about visiting in care homes at the moment. As is evident in the WhatsApps, I…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsIt really feels as though Opposition Members have not been listening to my answers. The public health advice was followed. The situation was that we had a limited capacity for…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsAs I have said, we are talking about, very sadly, people’s lives being lost—people’s mothers and fathers, grans and grandpas, sons and daughters, and sisters and brothers. We…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsOn the first point about the use of public health advice, the hon. Lady is wrong; all decisions were informed by public health advice. On her request about the public inquiry,…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsI reiterate to those living in care homes and their loved ones and families that the Government took every step throughout the pandemic to protect those we knew were vulnerable.…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsThe covid-19 pandemic was an unprecedented global health emergency involving a novel coronavirus that we were still learning about day by day, even hour by hour. Even in those…01 Mar 2023HANSARDHealth and Wellbeing Services: East of EnglandIt is a pleasure to respond to this debate, and I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Witham (Priti Patel) on securing it. She brought her legendary laser-like…01 Mar 2023HANSARDHealth and Wellbeing Services: East of EnglandThe hon. Lady will know very well that we are under substantial fiscal constraints as a Government, recognising the extra spending we put in through the pandemic to keep our…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsIt is relatively easy for the hon. Member to come to the House today and make these highly political points. Knowing how she and I worked together in the pandemic, and that she…01 Mar 2023HANSARDCovid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home ResidentsThe hon. Lady is right about the importance of testing. It is a view that she has and that I had at the time; some of the exchanges will show how I, as Social Care Minister, was…01 Mar 2023