Food-related Crime

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Monday 22nd February 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

The noble Lord entirely has a point. I completely agree with him that the National Food Crime Unit has a formidable task ahead of it and that its investigatory powers could be enhanced and its impact improved. That is the view of the Government, industry and the police, and that is why we are committed to the dialogue, first suggested by the Kenworthy review, on the enhancement to which the noble Lord refers.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

One of the food crimes I am told is increasing is that of stealing market-ready lambs. The people stealing them do not just load them on to a trailer and take them away—they butcher them in the fields and leave the debris, guts, blood and heads. I wonder whether the police have enough powers to deal with that particular crime, which is increasing.

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

The noble Baroness is entirely right: this is a very distressing crime. I was pleased to note the convictions and custodial sentences in March last year under Operation Stock, led by Northamptonshire Police, of three men for a string of such offences in the Midlands. The NFCU remains alert to the entry of meat from these offences into the food chain and works with policing rural crime networks to actively counter this practice.

Department of Health and Social Care: Unpaid Advisers

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Tuesday 17th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Morris of Bolton) (Con)]

The noble Lord, Lord Scriven, has withdrawn.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

My Lords, I deeply regret that some noble Lords are dragging this debate down to the issue of unpaid advisers. This is most inappropriate. No one could object to unpaid advisers; I have used them. I have even taken advice from people on the Benches opposite; that is how low I am prepared to sink. It is not about them being unpaid or giving advice; it is about the lack of transparency and accountability. Will the Minister agree that announcements should be made about unpaid advisers so we can know it is happening and guarantee there are no leaks—which there appear to have been so far.

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

The noble Baroness makes her points extremely well. She rightly points out that we take advice from a wide variety of people. The only reason that we are talking about this today is because a transparency register is made of my appointments, which is published on GOV.UK and I would be glad to share the website link with anyone who would like to look at it more closely. The appointments of unpaid advisers follow the guidance on direct appointments from the Cabinet Office. We are scrupulous in our adherence to that guidance, and we will continue to be so in any future appointments we make.

Covid-19: Test Results

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Tuesday 27th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, pool testing offers a huge opportunity to cover a large amount of ground very quickly, and there are some workplace testing champions for it, including Amazon. However, it has some restrictions, in particular not knowing the identity of the person who might have tested positive. That is why we are running a large number of pilots at the moment and investing heavily in trying to figure out this exciting but challenging technology. We will deploy it the moment we can find a model that works.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP) [V]]

My Lords, there have been a lot of allegations of corruption in the tendering processes for various aspects during the pandemic. I am curious whether the Minister feels that that could have some impact on the efficiency of what is happening now. When will the Government work with the right people?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

I acknowledge the presence of fraud and condemn all those involved, but I do not see the connection between fraud and inefficiency.

Covid-19: South Yorkshire

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Thursday 22nd October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

I pay tribute to NHS colleagues who have done an enormous amount to increase NHS lab capacity, and would be happy to share the numbers with the noble Baroness. We have written to care homes to emphasise the critical importance of the pastoral visits to which she refers. There is no question of a care home shutting out visitors if it can be avoided and we are putting regular testing in place to protect care homes. We are looking at providing regular testing for visitors and hope to make progress on it.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP) [V]]

My Lords, I take issue with the Minister’s response to the Front-Bench spokespeople when he urged everyone not to make party-political points during this pandemic, yet went on to swipe at Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester. The Minister needs to hold himself to the same high standards he urges on others. This Government promised to level up the north but all we are getting so far is the north being put into tier 3 lockdown and given £8 per head in compensation. When are they going to come up with a long-term economic plan? We have record low interest rates and this is the time to borrow and invest if we are to have any sort of green, productive future.

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, who has clearly read the Conservative Party manifesto. I should be grateful for her recommendations on how we can do exactly what she suggests.

Covid-19: Information Sharing with Police Forces

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Tuesday 20th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord for his question. The intention of this legislation is threefold: first, to increase public understanding of the importance of self-isolation; secondly, to help to support people to comply with self-isolation by making sure that they understand the consequences of breaking those rules; and, thirdly, to introduce fixed penalty notices for those who do not follow the rules. Our intention is not to enforce a surveillance culture around this; it is instead to leave it to members of the public to take it into their own hands as to whether they would like to share instances of breaches with the police, and to give the police an opportunity to follow up those reports in a timely, accurate and efficient fashion.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP) [V]]

My Lords, in an earlier answer to the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, the Minister seemed to suggest that the noble Lord was casting aspersions against the BAME community with regard to their willingness or not to sign up because of data-sharing with the police. Would he like to take back that slur? Could he also please tell me which BAME communities he spoke to before imposing these conditions?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

I am grateful for that important question. At no point would I ever wish to cast any aspersions or slur at the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, who I count as a close colleague and someone whose opinion I respect enormously. However, I was replying in response to his question about BAME communities. We are deeply involved in talking to a large number of those communities, which have traditionally been hard to reach. We are engaged with them on many levels to talk to them about how we can address the marketing challenge of getting our messages to them, how we can shape our messages so that they are fully understood, and how we can address any concerns they may have about the test and trace programme.

I can report to the noble Baroness that we have been extremely pleased by the very encouraging responses that we have had from those communities, which is why I do not think it is reasonable to assume that any particular community would be more or less suspicious of this programme than another.

Covid-19

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Thursday 3rd September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

I asked the Minister about this earlier and will send details to him so that it can be checked. Somebody complained that when they went to get a home test for Covid, they were asked to share their information with an American credit-check company called TransUnion, which sounds like data harvesting. I am sure we are all against that. My question is this. The Government have promised regular, weekly tests for care home staff from 7 September. Is that still happening?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I would be grateful to the noble Baroness for sharing with me the specific detail. It seems extremely strange to me; I do not recognise it at all. The way in which we put together our test registration protocols is to encourage the greatest number of people to register as possible. I am sometimes asked why we do not have more information on the gender, ethnicity and background of people tested. It is for exactly that reason. I would be grateful if the noble Baroness could send me those details and will be glad to check them out.

Huge progress has been made on care home testing. We have massively prioritised the delivery of testing kits and services through the packaging of large numbers of tests to the kinds of care homes that can deliver tests themselves; the attendance of mobile testing units to those that need that kind of support; the connection with local trusts and hospital services so that NHS resources can be used for care homes; or the attendance of care home workers at local NHS trusts for their tests if that is more convenient for them. A huge operation has gone into place, massive progress has been made and I am extremely grateful to all those concerned.

Covid-19: Response

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Monday 27th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell [V]]

My Lords, the Nightingale hospitals have been a huge success in helping us to protect the NHS at a time when our needs were greatest. Since then, when prevalence rates were lower, we reallocated resource into restarting the NHS to gain ground during the summer months on our backlog of business-as-usual work. Those resources are needed in the hospitals where people usually work. The mothballing of the Nightingale hospitals allows us to use that capacity for what is most needed right now.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP) [V]]

My Lords, evidence suggests that obesity doubles a patient’s chance of being hospitalised with the virus, hence the Government have put forward a strategy for reducing obesity, which I welcome. However, they could have introduced a sugar tax 10 years ago, which might have resulted in fewer obese Britons now. Is that policy under consideration?

[Lord Bethell [V]]

My Lords, the obesity package that the Prime Minister announced today is one of the most ambitious, impactful and thoughtful of any Government in recent history. We will see how it plays out and consider new measures when the time is right.

Covid-19

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Wednesday 8th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell]

I welcome the start of cricket, which I understand began today. I correct the noble Lord on one small thing: cinemas are not open, nor are they likely to be in the near future. The CMO, under the advice of SAGE, is considering the provision of new guidelines for spectators at sports. I do not know exactly when that will be, but it is certainly under review.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP) [V]]

My Lords, when our Prime Minister was Mayor of London and I was on the London Assembly, part of my job was to keep a close eye on what he said and did. It is my informed opinion that when he spoke about care homes and the 20,000 deaths, he was intending to pass criticism and blame away from himself and his Ministers. Is the Minister prepared to disagree with my informed opinion?

[Lord Bethell]

I completely understand the history of the noble Baroness’s role at City Hall, but I completely push back against her characterisation of the Prime Minister’s intentions. He has made it very clear that he is incredibly grateful for the hard work and sacrifice of those who work in the care homes sector, and I think we can take him at his word on that.

Covid-19: Track and Trace System

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Thursday 18th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell [V]]

My Lords, last week’s figures suggest that 67% of people who tested positive for coronavirus were reached by our contact tracers. This figure is rising every week. The epidemiological logic is that a system such as “test and trace” will never be 100% ubiquitous or track everyone who carries the disease—asymptomatic infection is a part of this terrible disease. However, it can have a profound effect on its spread and break the chain of transmission. That is why we have invested in this infrastructure and why we appealed to the British people to comply with the isolation protocols.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP) [V]]

When will the people of the Isle of Wight be allowed to stand down in terms of the app that they have been guinea pigs for, and to concentrate on a wider “test and trace” and their own recovery?

[Lord Bethell [V]]

My Lords, we are enormously grateful to the people of the Isle of Wight for their collaboration on the pilot. There is no question of them needing to stand down. Other measures for “test and trace” are working extremely well on the Isle of Wight, and both the pilot app and the manual “test and trace” have helped break the chain of transmission. We remain extremely grateful for their support.

Covid-19: Response

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Tuesday 19th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell]

The noble Baroness is entirely reasonable. I apologise if I give the impression that I am in any way complacent or if I am unapologetic about what we have done. She is entirely right: this is an awful disease that has hit this country extremely hard and not everything we have done has worked as well as we had hoped. Undoubtedly, when we look back, it will be judged that the Government have made mistakes; of that I am absolutely sure. I approach this question with humility. I completely take on board her point that questions that resist the idea that we have made mistakes are quite wrong.

However, I want to try to convey the enormous commitment and focus that the Government, the NHS and the people who are involved in the greater project have thrown into this project. It is not a massive shambolic mess littered with political stupidity and corruption, as is implied by some of the critics of the Government. Actually it has been a venture that has had a huge amount of innovation, collaboration and good will behind it. I am afraid I cannot help but seek to salute and pay tribute to those who are involved.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

My colleague on the Isle of Wight, Vix Lowthion, tells me that the public there are not clear about the aims and objectives of the trial they are taking part in. Can the Minister tell me now what are the criteria for success of the Isle of Wight trial?

[Lord Bethell]

One of the criteria of success is to learn from the pilot, which takes an early version of the app and hopes to develop learnings from it; we now have two or three. One of them, which I have mentioned, is that it is probably a mistake to launch an app before you have got the public used to the idea of tracing. As I mentioned in an earlier answer, that is something we have taken on board. When it comes to launching the test and tracing programme, we will begin with the tracing, not with the app.

Mental Health Services

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Tuesday 19th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell]

The noble Baroness is right: the Covid epidemic will throw a spotlight on our mental health provision. That provision is already benefiting from an extra £2.3 billion a year by 2023-24. We have already brought forward the 24/7 crisis lines that were due to be delivered in 2023-24, and I think there is a good case for bringing forward other parts of our mental health strategy to address mental health issues during the Covid epidemic. Undoubtedly, we will focus very shortly on ways of doing that.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

The Stevenson-Farmer review of 2017, which was set up by the then Prime Minister, recommended strengthening the 1981 health and safety regulations on mental health first aid. Will the Government commit to picking up those recommendations and implementing them?

[Lord Bethell]

The noble Baroness raises an important point. I will confess that I am not, and will not pretend to be, completely across the matter she raises, but I will write to her with a clear answer.

Covid-19: NHS Contact Tracing App

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Monday 18th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Lord Bethell) (Con)]

My Lords, we have put privacy at the heart of the app and how it works so that you do not need to give your personal details to use it. We have worked in partnership throughout with the National Cyber Security Centre and the Information Commissioner’s Office. The science around immunity is currently uncertain and there are a number of issues that we need to address to understand potential certification.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

I thank the Minister for his response but that is certainly not the information that I am getting from other places. A Dr de Montjoye from Imperial College’s department of computing has written a paper in which he says that, if the Government are to use this app properly, it is very important that they are transparent about it. Can the Minister commit the Government to transparency about whichever app they use?

[Lord Bethell]

Professor de Montjoye is entirely right that transparency is key. That is why we have published the open source code for our app, as well as a PPIA privacy notice, and blogs setting out the approach that we are taking. We will continue to go about our business in a transparent way.

Covid-19: Care Home Deaths

Debate between Lord Bethell and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Wednesday 22nd April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell]

The noble Lord, Lord Laming, makes a point that I am afraid I cannot agree with. While the press may be more focused on hospitals, we in the department have put an enormous amount of focus on social care. I pay tribute to my colleague Helen Whately, the social care Minister, who does not allow us to spend one minute not thinking about social care. However, the noble Lord is right that social care was deserving of a review in any case, and this epidemic will make that review even more poignant, relevant and important. I very much support his view that a review should take place after the epidemic and that it should be a root and branch look at the social care provision in this country.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

My Lords, I apologise that I was slow in unmuting. May I come in now?