Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the appointment of the interim Chair of the National Institute for Health Protection was made in line with the Governance Code for Public Appointments.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Baroness Harding was appointed by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care as Chair of the National Institute for Health Protection on an interim basis to urgently help establish the Institute. The Institute has not yet been formed. If when established as a public body, any roles meet the criteria for inclusion on the Public Appointments Order in Council, they will be added to the Order and the appointment process will follow the Governance Code on Public Appointments. The regulation of public appointments against the requirements of the Code is carried out by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how long the interim Chair of the National Institute for Health Protection is expected to remain in post.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Baroness Harding will remain interim Chair of the National Institute of Health Protection while the recruitment process is ongoing and while a handover takes place with the permanent candidate.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the recruitment process for the position of permanent Chair of the National Institute for Health Protection; and when they expect that process to begin.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We are in the process of establishing the National Institute for Health Protection from spring next year. Operational decisions, such as the Board constitution and membership, will be agreed over the coming months.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect the National Institute for Health Protection (1) to be formally established, and (2) to be fully operational.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP) will bring together the health protection expertise of Public Health England, Joint Biosecurity Centre and NHS Test and Trace under a single leadership. It will start work immediately to boost the United Kingdom’s ability to deal with and recover from COVID-19 and meet health challenges of the coming winter. Although the new leadership arrangements will be in effect immediately, the NIHP will not be formally established until spring 2021, in order to minimise disruption to the vital COVID-19 response work.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the rationale for using COVID-19 testing capacity as a measure of testing efficacy, as opposed to the number of actual tests completed.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what has been the average length of time it takes for COVID-19 tests to be processed and the results communicated to patients for each day of testing conducted.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of COVID-19 tests being taken at regional testing sites have been processed and the results communicated to patients within 48 hours of the test being taken.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of COVID-19 home tests have been processed and the results communicated to patients within 72 hours of the test being taken.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, for each day of distribution, how many home testing kits for COVID-19 did not have the complete information included to allow the test to be returned and processed. [T]
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the likelihood of COVID-19 becoming endemic in the UK in the long term.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Total eradication of SARS-CoV-2 globally is unlikely. Elimination nationally - that is, bringing the number of locally acquired cases to zero - may be possible transiently but is highly unlikely to be possible permanently. Though other countries appear to have eliminated the virus locally, it is still early in the pandemic and the virus is very likely to reappear in these countries.