Covid-19: One Year Report
Lord Liddle Excerpts(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Lord Liddle (Lab) [V]
My Lords, I first pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Bethell, for his resilience in surviving a very tough and demanding year. He has faced lots of questions from us and answered them in a fairly straightforward and direct way. I suspect that he will not agree with much of the rest of what I will say.
I particularly endorse the critique made by the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, of the lack of proper parliamentary scrutiny. As he said, we are on a slippery slope, I fear, to a model of elected executive populism at the expense of what we understand to be parliamentary democracy. I support these regulations, though somewhat reluctantly. What the noble Lord, Lord Beith, said in his extremely thoughtful speech should be taken to heart.
The Government are right to feel satisfaction about the vaccine programme, the success of which is a stellar example of the kind of industrial strategy that Governments should have been pursuing for a long time: public investment in a ground-breaking search and imaginative use of public procurement to see development through from the discovery of the science to manufacturing and production based in the UK. It is deeply regrettable that Kwasi Kwarteng this week or last week abandoned the industrial strategy that Greg Clark put in place—we now do not know what environment we are operating in.
However, the success of the vaccine cannot hide the multiple failures of the last 12 months: one of the worst death rates of nations in the developed world; the lack of preparation for the probability of a pandemic, despite the Government having previously identified this as a real risk; the consequent scramble for PPE, causing massive waste, incurring massive costs and using questionable methods of procurement; the lack of testing capacity properly in place; and, for all the billions spent, the failure of the tracing system last autumn, when it was most needed to try to curb the rising infections locally.
Of course, as a Cumbria county councillor, I feel the neglect of local government to be very serious. We have had pathetic sums to help us to provide effective local tracing, despite the fact that we have shown that that is more effective than the national system. Wrong political decisions have been made, such as the Chancellor’s Eat Out to Help Out policy—remember that? Was that a Covid-secure thing to do? What about Boris Johnson’s refusal last autumn to act quickly to introduce a circuit-breaker when cases were clearly rising far too fast?
As such, we need an investigation into what went wrong, but we also need to examine what Covid tells us about our own social fabric in this country: an NHS stretched beyond reasonable limits, a social care system at breaking point, and a welfare safety net set at levels where families cannot afford to feed their children and that has numerous holes in it, meaning that there are people with insecure jobs and low pay who cannot afford to isolate and too many people falling through the net.
We need to learn the lessons with an inquiry into what went wrong. I also hope that we will take the opportunity to think about what a new Beveridge in the 2020s would be for the United Kingdom. It should be something that all of us in politics could support, just as the consensus was established in the 1940s. This has been a crisis of the state and we have not managed it well.
Health and Social Care Update
Lord Liddle Excerpts(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Lord Bethell (Con)
Those were two extremely thoughtful and well-informed questions. I do not have the statistics at my fingertips, but I would be glad to go back to the department and write to the noble Baroness with the information she has asked for.
Lord Liddle (Lab) [V]
My Lords, I add my congratulations to the NHS on the tremendous success of this vaccination programme, but we should now be doing more to look forward to how we can address the social and public health inequalities that led to Britain having one of the largest death rates from Covid in the world. I speak in the context of being a Cumbria county councillor. The public health grant is what we use to tackle issues such as obesity, inactivity, smoking and alcohol, which greatly reduce people’s chances of surviving deadly disease. Next year’s public health grant is a mere £19 million—an increase of just 1.4%. Not only is this, frankly, a pathetic response to the social problems that led to all these Covid deaths, but it is unfairly distributed. Central London authorities such as Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster, receive three to five times the amount per head that our authority in the north receives. How do the Government explain this and how does it square with their levelling-up agenda?
Lord Bethell (Con)
My Lords, we are committed to both our levelling-up agenda and the kind of population health measures to which the noble Lord alludes. That is why we are bringing the NHS and social care Bill before the House later this year. I hope that the noble Lord engages with it to bring his insight to the debate.
Covid-19 Update
Lord Liddle Excerpts(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Bethell (Con)
My noble friend makes a key point on the dilemma we face. Do we prioritise the second dose or do we try to get the first dose to those who need it? Our policy is crystal clear: the second dose at 12 weeks will be delivered. Everyone who has had a first dose should get a letter or a contact in their 10th week and an appointment in the 11th week. That is our commitment, and we believe we have the supplies to see that through.
Lord Liddle (Lab) [V]
My Lords, I would like to pick up on the point made by my noble friend Lady Thornton about what is being done about refusal of the vaccine. I was rather alarmed by the Minister’s reply that there are no statistics on this. I accept that the Government have shown great transparency on vaccines, but the fact that there are no statistics on refusals is a worry. Do the Government think that more could be done by local authorities responsible for domiciliary care and care homes in their area to check on this? Could they be more active in trying to identify ethnic minorities on their lists who have not been vaccinated, so that something could be done?
Lord Bethell (Con)
I am afraid to say that the noble Lord’s point makes no sense to me whatever. We are not going to go around the country asking people whether they refused to take the vaccine. We have a dialogue with the whole country, and we wait patiently for people to step forward. I cannot give statistics on people who have refused because it would make no sense at all to ask people whether they are in that category.
Social Care Funding (EAC Report)
Lord Liddle Excerpts(3 years, 10 months ago)
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The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Faulkner of Worcester) (Lab)
The noble Lord, Lord Liddle, is not able to take part in the debate, so I call the noble Lord, Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton.
The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Faulkner of Worcester) (Lab)
We were told that you were not on the call at the beginning of the debate and did not hear it.
Lord Liddle (Lab) [V]
I was on the call and heard the beginning. But if that is your ruling, Chair, that is fine.
The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Faulkner of Worcester) (Lab)
No; we do not want to deny you the opportunity. Please speak to us now, Lord Liddle.
Lord Liddle (Lab) [V]
I am very sorry; I was on the call and heard the excellent speech of the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth. I first pay tribute to him for his chairmanship of the committee, and his ability to produce an objective analysis and a report that commands a wide degree of consensus. I have always regarded him as one of the finest speakers in the House but he is normally making arguments I totally disagree with, so I am delighted to be able to congratulate him on this report.
Secondly, I declare my interest as a member of Cumbria County Council. That is very relevant to this debate because, frankly, we cannot go on as we are with what are, basically, patchwork solutions to the funding crisis in social care while relying on council tax supplements to fund the bulk of the patching that is necessary. We are in a terrible dilemma this year in Cumbria. Should we put up council tax by 5% in real terms during this Covid crisis, when so many workers are on low incomes and the self-employed are in great difficulty? It is very unfair. It would be unfair in any event because council tax is very inequitable in the way that its burden falls. We must find a better solution. I was pleased that when we debated this, the noble Lord, Lord Greenhalgh, said that in his view council tax needed reform. That would be a very good first step.
Thirdly, this is an area where we have to be prepared to contemplate some unconventional state intervention. I am a free market man by nature, or a social market man, but on wages, working conditions and training, we should go back to some kind of wages council cum training board which is determined with a remit to raise standards in this sector.
Finally, there is a need for some intervention to sort out the corporate structure of the sector. Far too many care home chains have been ruined by private equity and loaded up with debt. This needs sorting out without giving a present to the shareholders, so some government intervention is required. I am also in favour of a reform of inheritance tax and of the charging system so that people do not lose the whole of their wealth that they want to pass on but the burden of social care is, basically, paid by the better off through a reform of wealth taxation.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation and Linked Households) (England) Regulations 2020
Lord Liddle Excerpts(3 years, 11 months ago)
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Lord Liddle (Lab) [V]
My Lords, I shall focus my brief remarks on the vaccine—the light at the end of this long and very dark tunnel. The Minister is absolutely right that British science has made an enormous contribution to this, and we should be proud of it. It is also an excellent example of public/private partnership, which I have always believed in. However, there are worries. A lot of noble Lords have concentrated on how we speed up the distribution of the vaccine. I endorse the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord McNally, about the use of community pharmacies. We should not leave them out, and we should go for the fastest-possible distribution.
However, what about manufacturing? What are the supply chain problems that limit the amount of vaccine available? I was very struck by an article in this morning’s Financial Times by Gustav Oertzen, who argued that there is a conflict between the public interest in the widest, quickest-possible distribution of the vaccine and the interests of the pharma companies, which want an extended production schedule over as long a time as possible to ensure a payback on their investment. Do the Government recognise this as a problem? If we are to go on a war footing, as the noble Lord, Lord Caine, put it, do we not have to have an honest dialogue with the pharma companies? Ought we not to think about how to incentivise them to produce things more quickly, and, if necessary, would we be prepared, as in wartime, to be more interventionist and have more direct control?
Coronavirus Vaccine
Lord Liddle Excerpts(4 years ago)
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Lord Bethell (Con)
My Lords, in relation to the logistical nightmare, one of the nice things about vaccines is that they do not take up much space: they are relatively compact, so I am not sure that wide-bodied aircraft will be needed, but I thank the noble Viscount for the wise suggestion. In relation to certification, he raises an interesting prospect that we have not fully bottomed out yet. As I said in response to earlier questions, we do not know whether vaccination will reduce transmissibility. Our hope and expectation are that it will, but until that is proven, any thoughts of certification will be premature.
Lord Liddle (Lab) [V]
I congratulate the Minister on his generous attribution of credit for this remarkable achievement, which was in very sharp contrast to the two Cabinet Ministers who sought to make cheap and inaccurate nationalist points about it yesterday—that is to his credit. Speaking as a Cumbria county councillor, I say again that his honesty about the constraints on the rollout is commendable, and I ask whether he agrees that, in rural areas, it is still very important that we concentrate on remedying the defects in our tracking and tracing system that our Cumbria public health director has identified? There is still a lack of proper liaison between the national and local systems, and this deficiency has to be addressed in this period, as people may become more relaxed as a result of the wider availability of a vaccine.
Lord Bethell (Con)
I welcome the noble Lord’s challenge and completely endorse his point that tracing will remain important. Not everyone will take the vaccine initially; it will not be available to everyone for months, as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer made plain in his briefing earlier today. Tracing remains a really important feature of our fight against this disease. However, I respectfully suggest that his information is a little out of date: the amount of collaboration on tracing between the national and local efforts, particularly with DPHs such as the one in Cumbria, has come on in leaps and bounds, even in the last few weeks. From my briefings and meetings with DPHs, I know that they have been provided with an enormous amount of data, support and access to tracing resources in order both to bring their local intelligence and insight to bear and to support the national tracing effort. I applaud all those DPHs who have stepped forward in this way, and I am very hopeful that the local-national combination on tracing will pay massive dividends.
Covid-19 Update
Lord Liddle Excerpts(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Lord Bethell (Con)
I am extremely grateful to my noble friend for flagging up this important concern, which I acknowledge is a serious worry for those in the athletic and sporting arena. Colleagues at DCMS are aware of this concern. It is extremely early days and we do not know what the impact of the vaccine will be on the kind of protocols analysed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, but we have sought advice from the WPA on this matter and I will be happy to convey it as soon as it arrives.
Lord Liddle (Lab) [V]
My Lords, this week’s news about the vaccine has been a great uplift at a very grim time. However, rolling it out will prove a massive logistical challenge, as I think the Minister accepts, at the same time as we are trying to repair the gaps and strengthen our test and trace systems, and trying not to damage the rest of the services provided by the NHS. Does this not all require a massive upscaling of the command and control capabilities of the Government? What steps are they planning to put in place to manage this phase of the crisis more successfully than they have managed it so far?
Lord Bethell (Con)
My Lords, I share the noble Lord’s sentiment that the vaccine is an uplift and a source of optimism, but I hope that he will not mind if I also use this opportunity to say that the British public—all of us—must stick with the protocols that are in place at the moment. It is not early enough for us to depart from social distancing and the current regulations around the lockdown. However, his point is extremely well made. We are determined to use the respite of the current lockdown to fill the gaps, to improve performance where it is needed, to address acknowledged weaknesses in test and trace, particularly in the tracing area, and to improve our performance thoroughly. However, I do not necessarily acknowledge the need for an upscale in the command and control elements. Certainly for the administration of the vaccine, we will be working through the existing NHS infrastructure, putting GPs’ surgeries and pharmacies at the centre of delivery. Test and trace is run through existing ministerial structures, with accountability to Parliament, and we intend to keep it that way.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Local COVID-19 Alert Level) (Very High) (England) Regulations 2020
Lord Liddle Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Liddle (Lab) [V]
My Lords, I have a certain sympathy for the Minister. These are very difficult judgments. Within a global pandemic, there are no silver bullets, and I do not doubt that Ministers have done their best. However, in my view they have made a very grave misjudgment—here, I disagree totally with the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes—in ignoring the SAGE advice of 21 September. They did not just ignore it; they failed to explain at the time why they were ignoring it, and this is bound to further undermine trust.
In the chaos of crisis, stuff happens and things go wrong, but a wilful decision to ignore the best available scientific advice without explanation at the time is a very serious criticism. That is a pity, because I think that the three-tier system is in principle a good idea. A differentiated approach with an emphasis on local action is right. I welcome the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, to the House as a fellow enthusiast for local government, if not a fellow enthusiast for our membership of the EU. The Government should have put more emphasis on remedying the obvious failings in their track, test and trace system; they should have pursued stronger integration of the national and local systems; and they need to give decent resources to councils, as well as proper compensation to businesses and employees.
We have lost a lot of ground in the last month, and I believe that Keir Starmer’s proposal for a circuit break is all that we have left in the present situation.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (No. 2) (England) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2020
Lord Liddle Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Liddle (Lab)
My Lords, I put my name down to speak with some reluctance because I am getting fed up with saying the same thing about the lack of parliamentary accountability and the way in which these regulations have been introduced. It is scandalous and high time that something was done. I agree that the most important point was made by my noble friend Lord Hunt, who asked whether the Minister could guarantee that when further major changes to these regulations are introduced—the new so-called three-tier system—the House can debate them before they are implemented and become law. This could be done through new arrangements for a special committee, agreed through our Procedure Committee, or by the whole House.
The noble Lord, Lord Lamont, gave a sparkling speech, much of which I agreed with. If regulations can be ridiculed in such a successful manner, they cannot be sensible and command public assent.
I end on a policy point. Far from stressing the rule of six, if we are to control this disease, it is most important to get the test and trace system right and tackle the fact that a low proportion of the people being contacted and asked to self-isolate are doing so. Getting that system right and involving local authorities on the ground is most important, as well as personal contact to persuade people to self-isolate.
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (No. 2) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020
Lord Liddle Excerpts(4 years, 3 months ago)
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Lord Liddle (Lab) [V]
My Lords, I do not know why we are having this debate. These regulations have been in force for some time, and nothing we say today will alter that. What is more, the Covid situation has changed drastically since they were first introduced. I think the debates demonstrate the farce, frankly, of Parliament’s present role. Parliamentary accountability is an essential part of democracy. Decision-making by Governments is improved as a result of debate. The point of opposition is not just to score points, however legitimate, against one’s political opponents; it is to expose arguments and debates that lead, ultimately, to better decisions. In the Covid crisis, the system of parliamentary accountability is letting the country down. It is no good having debates after the Government have made up their mind—after policies have been announced and regulations drafted, laid and put into effect. We need a radically reformed system of prior parliamentary consultation and full debate. We particularly need it because of the loss of public confidence in government over Covid.
We pride ourselves in this country on being the mother of Parliaments, but we are now an elderly parent who may still have great wisdom but has lost control, not just of the power of decision but of the power of effective influence. The European Parliament and German Bundestag would not allow themselves to be put in this position by the Executive. This is a question of fundamental importance: how do we rebuild the confidence in our political system that the erratic behaviour of the present Government is badly eroding? It is time to call a halt and we can easily do this.