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

Lord Holmes of Richmond Excerpts

Wednesday 29th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Holmes of Richmond (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, I pay tribute to all those in Leicester who are working so hard to bring this local outbreak under control. They deserve all our support and thanks.

Does my noble friend the Minister agree that, in essence, there is no such thing as a pandemic, just a series of local outbreaks? To this end, will he comment on the approach that should be taken to effectively bring local outbreaks under control? Similarly, I ask my noble friend: how do you hide a factory—secrete a sweatshop? Will he confirm that the Health and Safety Executive, not just in Leicester but countrywide, dramatically scaled back its operations, as did other inspectorates, at the beginning of the Covid outbreak for—yes, you guessed it, my Lords—health and safety reasons? This decision meant that a situation such as the one in Leicester was surely inevitable. What is being done to address this situation?

Similarly, at the beginning of the Covid outbreak, not the recent resurgence in Leicester, what efforts were made to ensure that communications could be obtained in different formats: large print, on tape, email for blind people, different languages—particularly in areas such as Leicester where there were clear language needs? Can my noble friend the Minister confirm what efforts were made in that respect, both at the beginning of the outbreak and, indeed, with the recent resurgence in the city of Leicester?