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

Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Wednesday 29th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I start by asking for a third time a question which Ministers have so far either refused or felt unable to answer: will they rule out the use of valve masks apart from in clinical settings? They protect only the wearer, and not potential recipients of aerosol contamination. Secondly, have they been able to follow up on my previous comments on positive pressure masking systems?

My noble friend Lord Bach, the PCC for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, is unable to attend today. I now set out his comments, in his words, for inclusion in Hansard:

“Leicester is a great city. It shows the world how people of different faiths and backgrounds can live and work in harmony. The 4 July lockdown was necessary; the data proved it, although Her Majesty’s Government were responsible for an absurd delay in drafting this SI. At least the area to be protected was based solely on health grounds; the current lockdown is based on local authority boundaries. However ridiculous and unfair they are, it was clearly wrong to pretend that health and administrative areas were exactly the same. Parts of Leicester still needed protected status, but others did not; it is hard not to believe that party politics intervened.

Today the news is good, as the recent Leicester Mercury headline—‘Positive coronavirus tests plummet’—from 14% down to 1.9%, suggests. The seven-day infection rate has fallen dramatically, at a time when huge amounts of testing are taking place. It is time to release Leicester from its chains. People and businesses who have followed the lockdown to the letter are entitled to their freedom. It is now up to HMG to do the right thing by Leicester later this week.”