Covid-19 Update

Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top Excerpts

Tuesday 6th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I am extremely grateful for my noble friend’s recommendation. It is a source of huge frustration, and amazement to me on some level, that the precise nature of transmission in all cases is not crystal clear. I am not sure that I would completely agree with my noble friend that it has been thoroughly disproved that the disease can never be transmitted from surfaces. In fact, there are others who think that this may actually be a very important vector of transmission. We certainly do not understand the full nature of the way in which aerosol transmission behaves, and it is likely that it is a mixture of them both. That is why we urge the country to comply with the Hands, Face, Space protocols.

[Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, it is significant that, in what can only be seen as a gloomy Statement, no reference has been made to the most vulnerable, many of whom were in the shielded category. National Voices has been listening to these people over the summer and published its report today. Too many in the most vulnerable category say that they feel, and felt, abandoned. They say, for example, that they want to be:

“given information that is relevant to me, in a way I understand.”

That is what many in the country, around all of this, are actually asking for. If we get it right for the most vulnerable, we might begin to get it right for the rest. When are the Government, after promising that they were going to issue more guidance and support to those shielding, actually going to do that?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I am touched by the testimony of the noble Baroness. I pay tribute to the work of National Voices, which has presented an extremely thoughtful and helpful guide and presented the testimony of those who have been under the extremely harsh regimes of shielding. She is entirely right that those who have had to go into the most extreme forms of lockdown depend the most on government guidelines. Those guidelines can be complex, and people can feel confused or lonely and separated because of their status. We have invested a huge amount in local authorities and in charities specifically to reach those groups. It is through that kind of civic and public service support that we can work with those people. It is not properly the role of central government to have individual communications with those who are shielding at home. We rely on our partners, and we have provided an enormous amount of resources to ensure they can do that job properly.