Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Leicester) Regulations 2020

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Wednesday 29th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD) [V]]

My Lords, as my noble friends Lord Scriven and Lady Jolly and other noble Lords have commented, these regulations came into force on 4 July, well over three weeks ago, and indeed other towns and areas have had partial lockdowns since. However, there is a real problem with the constant delaying of presenting these regulations to Parliament, which shows that the Government are really not taking seriously the job that we have to do, which is to scrutinise legislation. Can the Minister therefore assure us that when we return in September and virtual Grand Committee comes into operation, we will return to the pre-pandemic timetable of notification and presentation of SIs to your Lordships’ House?

A number of noble Lords who have local knowledge of Leicester and the surrounding areas, including my noble friend Lord Rennard, have explained well the problems with the speed—or lack of it—of the Government’s response to the Leicester lockdown, and I agree. Local lockdowns will work only when Ministers and the NHS silo work at speed and openly with affected local authorities. On Friday, I asked the Minister why the leader of Oadby and Wigston Council had not been involved in the decision about his borough remaining in lockdown, despite much better figures than Leicester City Council. I am sorry to say that Councillor John Boyce, the leader of Oadby and Wigston, has still not heard from Matt Hancock, despite the latter saying publicly that he had spoken to him. However, it is not just the leader of the council. Many local residents are extremely concerned, as are senior councillors and officials, about the possibility of unrest if they continue to be treated unfairly compared to their neighbouring councils.

More generally, directors of public health report that communications are improved, and I thank the Minister and his team for that. However, the data still does not always arrive consistently or when it is requested, which effectively ties the hands of the local directors of public health behind their back. They say that this flow needs to be urgent, reliable and consistent if they are able to knock the local spikes on the head.

I echo my noble friend Lady Barker’s questions about the slowness of getting data to the local authorities and my noble friend Lady Walmsley’s concerns about care homes. Today’s Public Accounts Committee report recognised that care homes were “thrown to the wolves”, so what are the Government doing to protect care homes from now on, given that the Prime Minister and others say that there is not a second wave and that we are already in it?

This Saturday sees the guidance to 2.2 million shielders change. I and other Members of your Lordships’ House are shielding. On 22 June Matt Hancock and Robert Jenrick wrote to us all to set out the changes for shielders that would take place on 6 July and this Saturday, 1 August. We are told that shielding “will be paused” on 1 August, but throughout the four-page letter shielders are warned that they must continue to adopt strict social distancing as they are

“still at risk of severe illness if you catch Coronavirus, so the advice is to stay at home where possible”.

As I said on Friday, this letter also warns shielders who live alone that their government and local government support—for example, food parcels and medicine deliveries—will cease. For those who work, if your workplace is Covid-safe the Government say you should return to work. Alongside this, furlough and other payments will cease, so even if you cannot get to work or work from home, you have to throw yourself on the mercy of your employer.

I am grateful to the Minister for writing to me overnight to set out the Government’s position. I have also seen the recently updated guidance on the department website, which reiterates the points I have just made.

If I thought that the 22 June letter was contradictory and confusing, I am now even more confused. Only yesterday the Prime Minister said:

“Let’s be absolutely clear about what’s happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends, I’m afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic.”


Overnight, Oldham has joined the list of towns with local constraints and lockdowns, and Stockport is on notice. The World Health Organization says countries that relax arrangements because they are waiting for the second wave need to realise that this is the second wave and cases are popping up all over Europe. We lifted our lockdown later than these countries and so are a few weeks behind them, but I am afraid the trajectory looks clear.

For shielders, the Government say in one breath that you must avoid contact and strictly socially distance at all times, but in the new advice the onus is put on the clinically most vulnerable to leave home and go to work, the pharmacy and the supermarket. They have to be ultra-cautious about seeing people and preferably not do it. Medical charities and NGOs are getting calls from concerned shielders to ask what on earth they should do with this contradictory information, so I ask the Minister the following questions: has he formally raised with the Chancellor of the Exchequer the extension of furlough and other payments to shielders who cannot work? Does he recognise that this small, vulnerable group are highly likely to lose their jobs without continuing support? Is it safe for people whom doctors believe to be at extreme clinical risk to go to supermarkets and pharmacies when these places have little power to enforce the wearing of face coverings by other people? Will shielders be notified as a matter of extreme urgency if there is a local or partial lockdown? Will the emergency support be immediately reinstated for them?