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3,496 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDCoronavirus BillLet me make a little more progress in answering my right hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh), and then of course I will give way. The Bill is jointly agreed…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillTests for both have recently been developed. The test for whether someone has coronavirus, which we call the case test, was first developed here by Public Health England, and that…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillYes. I will turn to this point shortly, but let me just correct my right hon. Friend. The measures we are taking to be able to hold people in quarantine build on those in the…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillWe have done more testing than most countries. There are some countries that are ahead of us, and we are racing to catch up. We have tested far more than, say, France or America,…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillI pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who has worked hard to ensure that we come to a solution in the Bill, through the amendments we have tabled today, that ensures we can not only…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillYes. If the right hon. Gentleman emails me with the details, we will get right on to it. He refers to bureaucratic barriers; we of course have to make sure that people are able to…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillThe hon. Gentleman makes an important point, because we have advised against all unnecessary travel and I do not regard going to a holiday home in Wales as a necessary journey.…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillAbsolutely—all of that is in hand. My right hon. Friend is quite right to raise it.23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillI beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. Coronavirus is the most serious public health emergency that has faced the world in a century. We are all targets, but the…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillYes. If it is okay with you, Mr Speaker, I will answer that intervention and then get on with the point in the Bill. These issues are outwith the Bill, but they are incredibly…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillWell, what can I say? I am concerned that people are not following the public health advice.23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillYes, this is what I have been spending the weekend on—absolutely; it is incredibly important. Turning to the second part of the Bill, which is about easing the burden on the…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillThe answer is as soon as the tests we are buying are available. Expanding testing is absolutely critical to everything we are doing. This part of the Bill also covers other…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillI will look into those specific points. There are parts of the Bill that would help to tackle the problem my hon. Friend describes if it is appropriate to do so, but I think it is…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillThe threshold is to do with staff shortages. I say gently to the hon. Lady that I understand her concerns, but in fact the purpose of these measures is precisely the opposite: to…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillClearly, these are issues of the highest sensitivity. It is important that we take those measures in case they are needed in the circumstances where staff numbers available are…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillI want to bring to the attention of the House to the professional indemnity clauses. Where there is no existing professional indemnity agreement in place the Bill provides legal…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillAbsolutely. The chief medical officer is personally looking into that issue to make sure that when there is a treatment, we can bring it to bear as soon as is safely possible.…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillThere will be recourse, and I will come on to that in a moment. The purpose of the social care measures in the Bill, which are very important, is to allow for the prioritisation…23 Mar 2020HANSARDCoronavirus BillWe could consider that. The proposal is to have a debate and vote as opposed to a whole new piece of legislation and, of course, only to renew it if the measures in the Bill are…23 Mar 2020