Covid-19: Local Restrictions

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Friday 9th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

Well, my Lords, our rule—if there is a rule—is that we are clear that our measures should be locally led. We work with local leaders first and communities to take swift action to prevent and manage outbreaks, ensuring that our responses work for them, supported by a national service which they plug into. It is for that reason that we are considering local tiers. Local alert levels or tiers are designed to standardise the interventions in place in local areas across England to make it easier to communicate what restrictions apply, and in what areas, to the public.

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

I follow on from the question asked by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman. I thought the answer was remarkable, but maybe the Minister did not understand the question. In March, the Government were very keen to work with all parties and many others to get the emergency powers in place and, since then, really it has been nothing—letters to leaders informing them, diktats to local government, and accusations of undermining the national effort when legitimate questions are asked and comments are made. As we face another spike, will the Government change their habits and let stakeholders and Parliament, including your Lordships’ House, play a fuller role in designing and agreeing the national effort?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I take exception to the noble Baroness’s characterisation of our approach. In fact, local planning and response are recognised as an essential part of our response to Covid, and are very much at the heart of the service. We want to have local outbreak control plans across the country. The development of local outbreak control plans is led by directors of public health; they are done on behalf of upper-tier local authorities, where the statutory responsibility for directors of public health sits, and are regularly reviewed by the local NHS, GPs, local employers, voluntary organisations and other community partners. There is also a link with local resilience forums, integrated care systems, combined local authorities and directly elected mayors as appropriate.