UK Ebola Preparedness

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Louise Ellman

Monday 5th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

That being the case, I will ask the Secretary of State for International Development to write to the hon. Gentleman with her assessment of how satisfactorily that process is handled in Sierra Leone.

[Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the Secretary of State tell us more about the support given across all Departments in finding treatments for Ebola, including support for the current trials being conducted by the Institute of Infection and Global Health at Liverpool university under Professor Tom Solomon?

[Mr Hunt]

We are giving strong support to that important work. Our support is being led in the Cabinet Office by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Government Policy and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who is bringing together all the Departments that can provide it. The sooner we can obtain a vaccine or a treatment that works, the better, and this could prove to be a very important part of the process of turning the tide.

Ebola

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Louise Ellman

Monday 13th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We are absolutely redoubling our efforts, and we are looking at what screening procedures are needed at regional airports. The screening and monitoring procedures that I outlined are starting at Heathrow terminal 1 tomorrow; they will be rolled out progressively across Heathrow, Gatwick and Eurostar terminals over the next two weeks. We are satisfied that that will reach the vast majority of people travelling from the affected countries. Any decision to expand those arrangements to other regional airports will be taken on the basis of the scientific advice that we receive about risk.

[Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op)]

Liverpool university’s Institute of Infection and Global Health, and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, have done a great deal of work to address the problem of the transmission of Ebola. Does the Secretary of State’s work involve their recommendations, and do his proposals for combating Ebola, particularly as regards international travel, address the issues that those institutions raise?

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right to say that we have fantastic research on the spread of infectious diseases at a number of institutions in this country, including in Liverpool, and we are not only using that research in the battle that we are leading in Sierra Leone, but making it available to partner countries leading the battle in other parts of west Africa. The advice that I get from my experts, from Public Health England and from the chief medical officer takes full account of the research done in places such as Liverpool.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Louise Ellman

Tuesday 11th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is right. There has been a £600 million real- terms increase in spending, something that the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) said was irresponsible. He will have to do a U-turn on this, and it will be an embarrassing one. He has talked about cuts in every single debate in the House and it turns out that those cuts never happened.

[Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op)]

Life expectancy in Liverpool is 10 and a half years less than it is in Kensington and Chelsea. Does the Secretary of State think that he has any responsibility to address that?

[Mr Hunt]

Yes I do, which is why we have published a website today that gives much more detail than there ever has been before about health inequalities. it is why, nationally, the Government have been responsible for a huge amount of initiatives to boost public health, including calorie labelling in restaurants, action on point of sale display tobacco advertising, alcohol unit labelling and a range of other things. We will play our part.