Covid-19 and the Use and Scrutiny of Emergency Powers (Constitution Committee Report)

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts

Tuesday 21st June 2022 Grand Committee

[Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)]

My Lords, the use of emergency powers is defined in the report as follows:

“Emergency legislation may be necessary in exceptional circumstances, but its use should be limited given its significant constitutional consequences.”


In addition:

“All governments should recognise that, however great or sudden an emergency may be, exceptional powers are lent, not granted, by the legislature to the executive, and such powers should be returned as swiftly and completely as possible, avoiding any spill over into permanence … . The vast majority of these regulations became law before being laid before Parliament; in other words, before members of either House”


had the chance to see them. The question is: did this need to be the case, notwithstanding the urgency with which we were required to act?

What is clear is that we can never implement emergency powers in such a cavalier fashion in future. The consequences of lockdowns on health, both physical and mental, and on so many vulnerable adults and children were appalling. Despite many scientists being aware of the effects that would take place, they said nothing. This led to millions of people waiting for treatment, some dying prematurely through lack of referral. Even now, all this time later, we are left with accident and emergency clogged up trying to sort out the mess.

The financial cost to the economy of three lockdowns was £370 billion, with many small and medium-sized businesses going bankrupt and many in the private sector losing their jobs. Thankfully, many have managed to find jobs—which will not do them much good today, if we look at the appalling actions taking place across the country.

Although I criticise my own Government, which of course I can do, while acknowledging the challenges of the decisions they had to make, I would certainly not allow the opposition parties off the hook, because too often, as far as I am concerned, this situation was turned into a political football. If it had been left to many of them, I suspect we would still be in lockdown.

My second point is on school closures. This was never necessary. Sweden and many other countries kept children in school not only for academic purposes but because it meant that their parents could carry on working to prevent the economy closing down. The huge issue of safeguarding was paramount but many children fell through the net, as we have seen from so many recent horror stories concerning child abuse and even murder. We can never allow a situation like that to happen again, where, in fact, many of the trade unions decided who could attend school and who could not.

Finally, there is much in this report to welcome. I hope that one of the most critical lessons will be regarding scrutiny, which has been raised, and making sure that Parliament can properly scrutinise measures and ensure legal clarity where necessary. The blur between guidelines and legally enforceable procedures and requirements left many police forces not even understanding the difference.

I hope nothing like this will happen again in our lifetimes, but if it does we need to have an open and frank debate. We must always be the order of the day, and I hope that, for once, lessons will be learned so that we can deal with future emergencies in a much more grown-up and responsible way, with all countries across the United Kingdom adhering to one set of regulations, while avoiding some of the knee-jerk fear- mongering by too many in the media and in medicine who did nothing to calm a most difficult situation. I hope I never witness anything like that again.