Health Measures at UK Borders

Baroness Barker Excerpts

Thursday 4th February 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Barker) (LD)]

We now come to the 30 minutes allocated to Back-Bench questions. I ask that questions and answers be very brief so that I can call the maximum number of people.

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[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord for his question. It is very nice to see him after so long; I have not seen him for ages. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary did say that too many people were going in and out of the country, which helps to spread the virus and risks new variants going in and out. I have a very old figure for the percentage of individuals who may be carrying the virus into the country, but I suspect it is out of date. That figure is 2%, but I am going back nearly a year now. If it is wrong, I will give the noble Lord a more up-to-date figure. I suspect it is not correct now.

Why are the quarantine hotels taking so long? I presume that was the question. It is a DHSC matter, and it has to procure the hotels and put Covid-secure arrangements in place for people to quarantine. Some of the arrangements in Australia are incredibly stringent.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Barker) (LD)]

We have a technical problem with the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, so the next speaker will be the noble Lord, Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton.

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[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

My noble friend makes a very good point, because there has been a lot of fraudulent and scam activity around the coronavirus. The only thing this leads to is misery, because if you produce a false test—a false certificate to say that you have had a negative test—you put yourself and others around you in danger. I am sure that our good Border Force has measures in place at the border to try to spot some of this fraudulent activity. In relation to compliance, we have stepped up some of the enforcement measures and the follow-up work to ensure that people are self-isolating, and we are also checking more people at the border.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Barker) (LD)]

I call the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw.

[Lord Bradshaw (LD) [V]]

Speaking—[Inaudible].

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[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

I suggest that we move on to the next speaker.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Barker) (LD)]

I call the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath.

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[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

My noble friend is right about the importance of the passenger locator forms being accurate and people being honest, and of some of those follow-up checks, with enforcement if necessary. As I said to earlier speakers, those checks are being stepped up. People are flouting the rules because they do not think they apply to them. As the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, said, 109,000 people have died, and it is very important that people stick to the rules so that we can protect the NHS and save lives.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Barker) (LD)]

Finally, with any luck, I call the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw.

[Lord Bradshaw (LD) [V]]

I wanted to ask the Minister whether the rules apply to general aviation as well as to ordinary civil aviation.

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[Lord Bradshaw (LD) [V]]

Thank you.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Barker) (LD)]

That was worth waiting for.

House adjourned at 7.47 pm.