Coronavirus Act 2020: Temporary Provisions

Baroness Manzoor Excerpts

Monday 28th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Manzoor (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate and welcome to these Benches the noble Baroness, Lady Clark, and my noble and learned friend Lord Clarke. I also look forward to the third and final maiden speech, by my noble friend Lady Morrissey.

It is welcome news that the 10th candidate vaccine for Covid-19 moved into the final stages of clinical trials last week. Sadly, however, this means that, for the time being, we have no choice but to battle the rapidly developing second spike with the same blunt instruments that we have been using over the last six months: washing hands, wearing face masks, limiting social contact, tracking, tracing and isolating. As such, it is important that we take this opportunity to objectively review the impact of the virus on the economy, on the health and well-being of individuals, and on the behaviour of people, to ensure the development of a more coherent, targeted and robust strategy and regulation.

With this in mind, I have four points which I ask my noble friend the Minister to address. First, the BMA states that at least 10 million appointments and procedures have been cancelled or postponed. This figure fails to account for people feeling ill who choose not to use the NHS, either because of the fear of contracting Covid-19 or out of a sense of duty. Can the Minister confirm that the Government will provide a detailed analysis of how the suspension of NHS services has affected the physical and mental health and social care of the population?

Secondly, can my noble friend say what steps are being taken to address the shortcomings of the test, trace and isolate system, and whether there are any plans to deploy more rapid turnaround testing capabilities, such as those being developed by Oxford Nanopore Technologies? There would be huge benefits in managing the spread of infection if we could provide test results in minutes. Delays in testing, tracing and isolating effectively could cost lives.

Thirdly, SAGE has found that less than 20% of those reporting symptoms of Covid-19 are fully isolating, and it has estimated that compliance rates are even lower in other members of those households. These statistics raise serious concerns over the merits of the £12 billion that the Government have invested in track and trace, and demonstrate a failure to persuade the population at large to observe the self-isolation regulations.

Therefore, can the Government publish regular statistics on how many people are being asked to self-isolate either because they have tested positive or have been in contact with someone who has tested positive, or because they are showing symptoms of Covid-19? Perhaps the Government could undertake regular surveys to determine why individuals are failing to comply with the requirement to self-isolate, so that more targeted approaches can be developed.

Finally, statistics published show that more than 90% of doctors who have died from Covid-19 were from black and ethnic-minority groups. Additionally, the latest analysis from the ONS shows that black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani men are four times more likely to die from the disease than white men. A similar pattern exists between ethnic-minority and white women. Can the Minister inform the House of what research, if any, has been undertaken to explain these differences in mortality rates? What steps, if any, are being taken to mitigate the risks that arise for those groups in those communities, in the workplace and in the NHS? The regulations are important, but they are only part of the picture.