Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they plan to lift the restrictions put in place by the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No.4) Regulations 2020; and what restrictions they plan to put in place in England once those Regulations are no longer in force.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We believe the new regulations strike the right balance to take urgent action to stem the spread of the virus while also allowing essential retail to stay open and allowing the hospitality sector to remain open for delivery and takeaway.
Throughout this crisis, the Government and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, have provided robust scientific evidence and advice to guide decisions regarding the measures taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Indoor settings carry higher environmental risks, due to the close proximity of people and a longer duration of exposure. This evidence continues to be published online.
On 2 December, restrictions will expire, and we intend to return to a tiered system on a local and regional basis according to the latest data and trends.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the success rate of a single polymerase chain reaction test for COVID-19, in terms of a percentage, for people with COVID-19 who have previously received a false negative result.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government does not publish data in the format requested.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the percentage of COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction tests that have resulted in a false positive.
Answered by Lord Bethell
In June 2020 the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies published a briefing paper on the impact of false positives and false negatives in the United Kingdom’s COVID-19 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing programme. A copy of the briefing paper is attached.
The briefing paper states that the United Kingdom operational false positive rate is unknown, and an attempt has been made to estimate the likely false-positive rate of national COVID-19 testing programmes by examining data from published external quality assessments (EQAs) for RT-PCR assays for other ribonucleic acid viruses carried out between 2004-2019. Results of 43 EQAs were examined, giving a median false positive rate of 2.3%.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the efficacy rate of a single COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction test for international travellers upon their arrival in circumstances where no pre-departure test has been conducted.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Scientific analysis conducted by Public Health England and approved by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies showed that a single test on the day of arrival would reduce the number of infectious international travellers who enter the community by only 7% compared to a no self-isolation, no test scenario. This is compared to an estimated 99% reduction in the number of infectious international travellers entering the community for a 14-day self-isolation approach.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the level of compliance with the quarantine periods for international arrivals.
Answered by Lord Bethell
On arrival Border Force conduct spot checks on passenger forms which include contact details, passport number and address while in the United Kingdom.
Further compliance checks are carried out by Public Health England’s Isolation Assurance Service (IAS) who attempt to contact randomly sampled arriving passengers to ensure that they are self-isolating.
Data for the period 8 June to 7 September 2020 show that the IAS successfully made contact with 66,773 passengers and confirmed compliance with self-isolation for 64,800 passengers.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much financial support they plan to provide to the aviation industry in the UK to support that industry during the COVID-19 pandemic; and how they calculated the amount of such support required.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The aviation sector is crucial to the UK’s economy and businesses across the industry are able to draw on the unprecedented package of economic measures we have put in place during this time. This includes a Bank of England Covid Corporate Financing Facility scheme and the job retention scheme, both of which have been used by the aviation sector.
In exceptional circumstances, where a viable company has exhausted all options and its failure would disproportionately harm the economy, the Chancellor has made clear, the Government may consider bespoke support on a ‘last resort’ basis. We will notify Parliament of the spend incurred as a result of any deal.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of levels of compliance with the quarantine rules when determining international travel requirements.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Throughout the pandemic, the Government has brought in the right measures at the right time, based on scientific advice. Scientific advice can give us estimates of the incidence of coronavirus internationally and domestically, and Ministers decide how to respond to the risk of imported cases based on this advice.
Self-isolation, if complied with, is an effective method of reducing imported cases of COVID-19, and is an important part of the Government’s international travel response to the pandemic.
Enforcement and compliance with border measures is a pivotal strand of this response. The Home Office has pressed ahead with improvements to enforcement and compliance, including increasing the number of contact tracing calls conducted by Public Health England.
The need for border measures is reviewed every 28 days, to ensure that they remain in line with the latest scientific evidence, and that they continue to be effective and necessary. Each review takes into account a range of factors and is guided by the scientific advice.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what benefit analysis they have undertaken in regards to the quarantine policy for international arrivals.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Throughout the pandemic, we have brought in the right measures at the right time based on scientific advice. Scientific advice can give us estimates of the incidence of coronavirus internationally and domestically, and Ministers decide how to respond to the risk of imported cases based on this advice.
The Government conducted an assessment of the impact before initial implementation and these measures are subject to review every 28 days and supported by an Impact Summary, to ensure they are in line with the latest scientific evidence and remain effective and necessary.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish the results of the consultation of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on a mandatory approach to ethnicity pay reporting.
Answered by Lord Callanan
The Government ran a consultation from October 2018 to January 2019 on Ethnicity Pay Reporting and, we have met with businesses and representative organisations to understand the barriers towards reporting and what information could be published to allow for meaningful action to be taken. We have also run voluntary methodology testing with a broad range of businesses to better understand the complexities outlined in the consultation using real payroll data.
On the 14 June, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced a new Commission on race and ethnic disparities which will examine continuing racial and ethnic inequalities in Britain and ways Government can address these and improve lives. Further information will be published in due course.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, and if so, when, they intend to introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting.
Answered by Lord Callanan
The Government ran a consultation from October 2018 to January 2019 on Ethnicity Pay Reporting and, we have met with businesses and representative organisations to understand the barriers towards reporting and what information could be published to allow for meaningful action to be taken. We have also run voluntary methodology testing with a broad range of businesses to better understand the complexities outlined in the consultation using real payroll data.
On the 14 June, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced a new Commission on race and ethnic disparities which will examine continuing racial and ethnic inequalities in Britain and ways Government can address these and improve lives. Further information will be published in due course.