Education Settings: Wider Opening

Aaron Bell Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

At every stage, we will take the maximum cautious approach on how we bring schools back. Every step, whether it is making sure children are able to come back to much smaller class sizes, so that we reduce the risk of transmission, or making sure that contact between children is absolutely minimised—although these things are incredibly challenging for schools and reduce the ease of operating schools—has been taken to reduce the chances of transmission. SAGE always publishes all its papers and makes them public, and I imagine it will continue to do so.

[Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend acknowledge the international evidence that looking at the R rate, either locally or regionally, becomes less useful as case numbers fall and that perhaps we should be looking at the prevalence data from the Office for National Statistics? In that light, will he commit to working with the sector to get all children back to school in September and supporting them to make up for the lost time?

[Gavin Williamson]

My absolute ambition is to see all children back in September but over the coming weeks it is to maximise the number of children who are able to benefit by going into schools. My hon. Friend raises an important point: this is about not just the R rate, but what we are doing on track and trace, and everything we can do to minimise transmission within schools to make them a safe environment for people to work in and learn in.