Covid-19

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Lord Taylor of Goss Moor

Thursday 28th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con) [V]]

She sounds like an extremely sensible young lady to me. I hope that the noble Lord reassured her that the issue we face with school closures is not that schools are unsafe for pupils or teachers. The problem is that the new variant is so pervasive that we need to use every lever at our disposal to reduce all contacts outside households, wherever possible, to reduce the pressure on the NHS. I am sure she will be aware that her teachers will, I have no doubt, have implemented a lot of protective measures to ensure that children who can still attend school are safe. Perhaps he might also like to let the young lady know that we are offering biweekly asymptomatic testing for all secondary school and primary school staff. Over 90% of secondary schools and colleges have now registered for this testing.

[Lord Taylor of Goss Moor (LD) [V]]

My Lords, we can probably all agree that sending pupils back to school on the Monday and keeping them home from Tuesday was not a wonderful situation to put schools, pupils and families in. The Government are clearly trying to give some indication of a timescale well ahead this time, which is welcome, but as a single parent of three boys, who are here at home with me now, it is evidently the case that parents and schools need good notice. There also needs to be some understanding of the pressures on parents. What does a phased return mean? Will it mean one child stays at home while a parent drives the other to school? How will it be managed? Is it regional? The more notice that can be given, the more arrangements can be made at school and at home to make this work. I hope the Government will continue to work to give the earliest possible indication of how schools will be brought back to functioning.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con) [V]]

The noble Lord speaks on behalf of parents throughout the country. He is absolutely right that, when we do start to re-open schools, we want to ensure that will be sustainable. That is why we have taken the difficult decision, in the light of the current data and the current situation, to say that we will not be able to open school immediately after the February half term. He will also know that we have promised to give at least two weeks’ notice to schools, colleges and universities of when they can return to face-to-face teaching to do exactly as he says: to allow student, staff and parents to prepare.

Covid 19: Winter Plan

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Lord Taylor of Goss Moor

Tuesday 24th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

We have put in place one of the world’s most comprehensive economic responses, backed by over £200 billion, to protect jobs, incomes and businesses throughout this period and beyond the pandemic. Our support for the self-employed has been more comprehensive and generous than almost any other country’s, with around £13.5 billion for over 2.5 million people.

[Lord Taylor of Goss Moor (LD) [V]]

First, as the father of three young boys, I associate myself with the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Knight, about children being able to meet with other children from their school bubble, who they work with every day, outside the school. It is critical to their socialisation and enjoyment of the coming weeks.

More specifically, it only takes walking down the high street to see how many businesses have shut over the last months—permanently, not just for lockdown. Hospitality businesses are at enormous risk of long-term closure now if they are not able to operate during the critical weeks up to Christmas. Will the Government extend specific support beyond that already being given to them, as they will be required to miss their most important trading time?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

I completely accept and acknowledge the difficulty for hospitality businesses in particular over the past few months. As the noble Lord is aware, we have provided a comprehensive array of economic support packages, through the furlough scheme, grants to businesses forced to close as a result of the restrictions, business rate relief and the extension of various schemes. We are cognisant of this and will continue to support the hospitality sector. To get all businesses back on their feet, we want to find the pathway out of this pandemic. With vaccines, mass testing and improved therapeutics, I hope we are getting towards that, so that businesses can start to open and return to some sense of normality, which we and they all want.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Lord Taylor of Goss Moor

Thursday 25th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

As I said, we are committed to doing everything possible to allow children to go back to school safely and to support their well-being and education, and we are working with schools to make sure that that can happen. We are very well aware of the disadvantage that many schoolchildren have faced over the last few months. That is why we have announced £650 million—to be shared across state primary and secondary schools over the 2020-21 academic year—for head teachers to spend on evidence-based interventions for those children who have missed out. In addition, we have put a further £350 million into a national tutoring programme to increase access to tuition for the most disadvantaged children. My noble friend is absolutely right: we need to make sure that children are not disadvantaged by the lockdown, and that is why we want to get them back into schools as quickly as possible.

[Lord Taylor of Goss Moor (LD) [V]]

My Lords, as a former chair of the National Housing Federation and as someone still working with that sector, I am acutely conscious that many planned improvement works on people’s homes—not least the fire safety efforts in high-rise buildings—are currently on hold because there is no clarity about contractors going into people’s homes to do the necessary work, although they can do so in emergencies. I am talking about electricians and plumbers, and this applies not just to affordable homes but across the country. There is no clarity for a huge number of people who work on improving people’s homes, often carrying out necessary interventions and, indeed, tackling sustainability. As I said, we are all very conscious of the fire safety issues. Can the Minister give some clarity about whether these contractors are now able to engage in that work in people’s homes, while of course exercising due caution, carrying out cleaning and maintaining a distance? After all, they are identifiable through track and trace if need be.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

The noble Lord is absolutely right. As we take another step in moving from the two-metre to the one-metre-plus rule, that will help to ensure that some who have not been able to work are now able to do so. A huge amount of guidance is available, including for the construction industry. While travelling to the House, you can see that construction is picking up and that a lot more of this work is ongoing. I hope that, as we move towards unlocking and allow more people back to work, and as we move away from the two-metre rule, those things will help to ensure that more of that kind of work can begin again.

Covid-19: Strategy

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Lord Taylor of Goss Moor

Tuesday 12th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

As I said in my answer to the previous question, it is absolutely right that nobody should be forced to work in an unsafe workplace. I have set out a number of ways in which employees with concerns could take them forward. Of course, we expect businesses to abide by the Covid-secure guidelines. We have done a whole series of them for different types of workplaces. We have worked closely with the unions, the Health and Safety Executive and public health authorities to make sure that these are accessible, and will work very hard with business to make sure they provide the safe workplaces we all want to see.

[Lord Taylor of Goss Moor (LD)]

My Lords, the muddled messages of the last 72 hours have left the nation uncertain and confused by the Prime Minister’s plan. Does the Minister agree that first publishing draft proposals—even options—and a Green Paper that experts, Parliament and the public could have scrutinised and interrogated could have delivered greater clarity, less confusion and quite possibly better answers? Then, announcing conclusions first to Parliament, where they could be questioned and explained, would certainly have ensured that the all-too-obvious confusions were at least answered and hopefully avoided. Does the Minister agree that Parliament has evolved in this way for a reason? Frankly, I am one of those who believes that the NHS’s increased capacity and the fact that the number of new cases is down means that a more targeted strategy focused on protecting the vulnerable would have been the better next step. Can the Government at least now publish their assessment of the main options that have been canvassed?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

As I mentioned, I believe that we are being clear in our messaging and that the public understand our messages. As I said, in addition to the road map we have published more than 46 pieces of additional guidance on a whole range of areas from transport to workplace safety and school settings, and we will continue to do that over the coming weeks. We want to keep a dialogue with both Parliament and the public and take everyone with us as we navigate this cruel disease. I believe everyone is playing their part. It is fantastic that we have been able to get to a point where we have a road map and can start to see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, but we have to make sure we continue abiding by the social distancing rules, keeping up with hand-washing and doing all those other things we have been told about. That is what we need to do to keep moving in the right direction as we tackle this disease.