Covid-19 Update

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Monday 19th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Nadhim Zahawi]

My hon. Friend’s question is an excellent one. She has participated in the vaccination programme—she is one of the heroes I stand on the shoulders of—and she has done work in Sleaford and North Hykeham. I absolutely confirm to her that the JCVI advice is very specific on the conditions of young people who will be eligible to receive the vaccine to protect them from covid and, of course, those adults who are also vulnerable to it. That is why I talked in my statement about the NHS being in contact with those families to be able to advise them and then facilitate vaccination in a place and at a time convenient for them.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

The Health Secretary was double jabbed and got infected. In Swansea Bay, 18% of those infected in June were double jabbed and 31% were single jabbed. So does the Minister accept that freedom day is not the freedom to infect others, that masks and social distancing remain vital and that jabs are stopping people from dying? Will he confirm that he is not pursuing a policy of herd immunity, which would overwhelm the NHS and leave a massive legacy of long covid, disabling our economy?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I can certainly confirm that, and the guidelines are very clear that we are both supporting people and recommending that they continue to be careful when in indoor spaces and crowded places, to wear masks and to take personal and corporate responsibility, rather than having government by diktat.

Health and Care Bill

Geraint Davies Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 14th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

The NHS was established to provide equal rights to healthcare, free at the point of delivery, irrespective of income or personal health. Yet as we emerge from the pandemic in praise of the NHS, this Bill is yet another step towards dismantling and privatising the system.

With the highest vaccination rates, thanks to the NHS, England also has the highest infection rate of the delta variant, thanks to the Government going into lockdown too late and coming out too soon. With 128,000 people dead, 695,000 currently have the covid variant and there are record waiting lists. The Government should be investing in more capacity now—in the workforce and in beds. They should be reinstating the 12,000 empty beds. Instead, the Government are putting £10 billion into the private sector over four years, with the framework contract, when the private sector has only 8,000 beds in total. Doctors will have to leave NHS hospitals to go to private hospitals, further disrupting NHS services.

Coming out of the pandemic, we need a healthcare Bill that re-energises the NHS and rewards our nurses and doctors who saved the country from calamity. Instead, this Bill allows private health companies to sit on boards, deciding where the NHS funding is spent. It allows further outsourcing, opening the door to more taxpayers’ money being siphoned off to the profits of private contractors. The NHS is being fragmented. Talk of patient choice is disingenuous, as funds must be transferred in the internal market, so it is a postcode lottery. There has not been patient choice in England since the internal market was introduced.

In contrast, in Wales, the Labour Government continues with a planned system that has delivered the highest vaccination rate in the world and a 90% effective test, track and isolate system, wholly delivered by the public sector through councils and health authorities. Wales has a lower death rate over a five-year average—13% in Wales vs. 20% in England, despite Wales’s older population. There is public procurement in place of crony contracts to Tory donors.

Wales has shown that public money is used most effectively in the NHS by public sector delivery, so more people are treated equally, irrespective of income and personal health, true to Aneurin Bevan’s founding principles. Instead, the Bill is a back door for United States companies, via trade deals, to further break up our system, on the road to health insurance, which hits the poorest and sickest hardest.

This is a rotten Bill. It is bad for Britain’s health, bad for our wealth and bad for our most treasured achievement —our NHS.

Vaccine Roll-out

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Thursday 21st January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I will absolutely look into that. I join the hon. Lady in praising the roll-out in Bedfordshire, which is going well. It is wonderful to hear the personal stories of so many people whose vulnerable family members have been vaccinated. The vaccination programme is touching us all; we just have to get it done as quickly as possible to make people as safe as possible as fast as we possibly can.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

Coronavirus deaths are 10% higher in areas with only slightly higher air pollution. Will the Secretary of State bear that in mind in respect of his priorities for the rolling out of the vaccine? More importantly, will he ensure that the World Health Organisation air-quality limits are introduced to the Environment Bill next week, so that they have immediate effect and are legally binding? That will save thousands of lives from coronavirus and prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths from air pollution next year, given that as many people die from pollution every year as died from coronavirus last year.

[Matt Hancock]

The hon. Gentleman is an irrepressible campaigner on tackling air pollution. There is a link between air pollution and a person’s risk of dying from covid, and I have been talking about that to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Coronavirus Vaccine

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

It is a great day for science and a great day to be Chair of the Science and Technology Committee, I would have thought. I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for what he said, which was very generous.

On the point about repeat testing instead of isolation for contacts, that is something we are trialling right now, and I hope we can make significant progress on it in the weeks ahead.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

Last Tuesday, the Prime Minister reassured me that Government guidance would stop non-essential travel out of areas in tiers 2 or 3 into less-infected areas. However, in fact the guidance says that

“if you live in a tier 2 area, you must continue to follow tier 2 rules when you travel to a tier 1 area.”

That means that someone can travel from higher-infection areas to lower-infection areas, including to Wales. Will the Secretary of State update the guidance to comply with the Prime Minister’s advice and stop non-essential travel from higher-infected to lower-infected areas ahead of the vaccine?

[Matt Hancock]

The guidance is precisely as set out on gov.uk.

Covid-19 Update

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Thursday 26th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

We work as a very cohesive team of Ministers in the Department, and we all work on covid-related issues. I take my hon. Friend’s gentle chiding that he would rather my No. 2 took these decisions, but I am afraid he is stuck with me for the time being.

On the serious point that my hon. Friend raises, we will review the tiers in a fortnight and then regularly, which he can reasonably take to be weekly. We have a weekly cycle of meetings, with the chief medical officer chairing a meeting, typically on a Tuesday. I then chair a meeting on a Wednesday for an announcement on Thursday of any change to the tiers.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

The Secretary of State knows I chair the all-party parliamentary group on air pollution, so he will not be surprised if I point out that tier 3 areas tend to be the areas with the highest pollution. Every microgram of PM2.5 per cubic metre increases covid deaths by between 14% and 18%, and that is on top of the 40,000 deaths annually from air pollution. Does he agree that we need cross-Government activity and an all-Government report annually—from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Transport—on what they are doing individually and collectively to combat air pollution and, in so doing, to reduce the covid death rate and the overall death rate? I can see the Prime Minister nodding sagely. Would the Secretary of State agree to an annual report?

[Matt Hancock]

It is very impressive that the hon. Gentleman can see the Prime Minister, since he has just left the Chamber, but I am sure the Prime Minister is nodding sagely, wherever he is. The hon. Gentleman makes a very serious and important point, on which we agree. Air pollution is a very serious issue. In lockdowns, air pollution has been reduced; that is one upside to what are otherwise very damaging things to have to do, but they are necessary to keep the virus under control. I hope we can continue to work together on tackling air pollution long after this pandemic is over.

Covid-19 Update

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Tuesday 20th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, I am happy to agree with my hon. Friend. We were discussing on Sunday morning the challenges in South Yorkshire, where cases are going up fast and action needs to be taken. Talks are ongoing in a highly collegiate and constructive way. I pay tribute to the way that he stands up for his constituents in Rother Valley and makes the case directly to Ministers day after day about what is best for the area and represents them so clearly.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

In lockdown, people need the financial support to do the right thing and stay at home to stop the virus. In Wales, where we are in national lockdown, the Labour Government have provided £300 million. That is £100 per person to help them stay at home to beat the virus. But in Manchester, the Prime Minister has provided £22 million. That is £8 per person, instead of £100 per person in Wales. How can that be right? Will the Secretary of State and the Chancellor ensure that, wherever people live across the United Kingdom, they have enough money to stay at home to beat the virus, without inflicting massive poverty?

[Matt Hancock]

We have put substantial funding into not only Greater Manchester but Wales, which goes directly to businesses that are affected and have to close and directly to individuals, through the furlough scheme, the job support scheme and universal credit, which is available to all those who lose their jobs and people in low-paid work. In addition to the funding that remains on the table—and I urge the local leadership in Greater Manchester to come back to the table—there is widespread support available.

Covid-19 Update

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Monday 5th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

My hon. Friend is right to ask that question, because we are expanding the number of labs as we expand the number of tests. I know that there is great capability in Derbyshire that can be brought to bear as part of this big team effort.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

As you know, Mr Deputy Speaker, people in lockdown in Wales are not allowed to leave their county for fear of spreading the disease. For instance, people in Newport, where there are 50 cases per 100,000 people, cannot go to Aberystwyth. But people in Manchester, where there are 500 cases per 100,000 people—10 times the number—can go to Aberystwyth and elsewhere in Wales and spread the disease. To stop this spreading of disease, will the Secretary of State restrict travel out of locked-down areas in England? If not, will he accept that it would be a good idea for people arriving in low-risk areas in Wales to quarantine, or is he happy for the disease to spread without restriction?

[Matt Hancock]

The challenge is that the primary transmission of the disease is between households and households mixing with one another. The approach that we have taken in England since we came out of the initial full-blown lockdown has been to put travel restrictions in guidance rather than law, because we feel that that is the most appropriate thing to do. That is not the approach being taken in Wales, but that is how we are currently handling it in England.

Covid-19 Update and Hospitality Curfew

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Thursday 1st October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I want to say to all the staff and all the regulars at the New Cross that we would not have this in place unless we thought it was needed. The science is about how, late at night, people end up closer together and therefore spread the virus more, and this will not stay in place one minute longer than it needs to.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

If the Government decide to restrict trade or close down trade for pubs or particular businesses for good public health reasons, surely it is for all of us, through the Government, to pay that cost—through borrowing, at historically low interest rates, paid back over time through our progressive tax system—not for individual pubs and businesses to pay it, possibly with bankruptcy, as at places such as Brains brewery in south Wales. Will the Secretary of State therefore have a word with the Chancellor to ask that he provides adequate financial support for both sustainable businesses and good public health?

[Matt Hancock]

Of course, this measure is for England, and it is up to the devolved Welsh Administration to decide public health measures in Wales, but the principle that we as taxpayers, as a whole country, should shoulder as much of the economic burden as possible is what underpins the absolutely unprecedented £190 billion of extra support that this Government have put into the economy to get us through these very difficult times.

Covid-19 Update

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I am very happy to meet my hon. Friend, who speaks so strongly for Crewe and all of its residents, on the need for a high-quality NHS. Of course, my hon. Friend is a qualified doctor who, during lockdown, spent a huge amount of time in hospital and working on the frontline of the NHS, and I think we should all applaud him for that work. I am absolutely happy to meet him. He knows, with enormous expertise, of what he speaks. We are all grateful for his service, and I hope that we can continue to make improvements to Leighton Hospital.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

Some 10% of infectious people are being sent over 22 miles—some, hundreds of miles—without contact tracing, for testing, so would the Secretary of State agree that the current testing system also amounts to a spreading system for the virus?

[Matt Hancock]

No, because the testing sites operate, of course, in a covid-secure way; we put a huge amount of effort into the infection control procedures at testing sites. I want to reiterate, for anybody listening who has symptoms and might be worried by some of the things they are hearing, that the average distance that people go is only 6.4 miles, and that 90% of people travel less than 22 miles to get a test. If you have symptoms, please get a test.

Coronavirus

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 17th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

Research from Harvard and Queen Mary University clearly shows a dramatic increase in the level of deaths and infections from covid-19 in higher pollution areas. Given that BAME communities tend to live in higher pollution areas, will the Secretary of State accept that this is a major factor in their disproportionate death rate? What is he doing with colleagues to ensure that we have low pollution levels as we come out of covid? Will he meet me to consider proposals from scientists, businesses, academics and local authorities, published by the all-party parliamentary group on air pollution, on a strategy for coming out of lockdown with low air pollution to reduce death and infection rates?

[Matt Hancock]

The hon. Gentleman—he is my hon. Friend when it comes to air pollution—and I share a passion for clean air. He is right about deaths being correlated with areas of high air pollution. We are looking at the reasons behind the disproportionate number of BAME deaths, and we will take air pollution into account in that work. On the final point, it is a bit like an earlier question asked by one of my hon. Friends from a completely different angle—some things have got better in this crisis. Overall, of course, the crisis has been terrible, but some things have got better. One is air pollution. Let us cling on to that and redouble our efforts to keep clean air for the future