Covid-19 Update

Chris Grayling Excerpts

Monday 7th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

We have brought in this incredibly strong travel regime, including the need for all travellers to be tested, and calls and home visits to those quarantining at home. That is based on risk, and we have taken the approach of being tough at the borders so as to protect the success of the vaccine roll-out here at home.

[Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend should take great credit, as should his team, for the progress of the vaccination programme, and I congratulate him on it. Is it true that the Joint Biosecurity Centre said that Malta could be put on the green list?

[Matt Hancock]

It is true that a number of balanced cases are put before Ministers, and we always look at the pros and cons of each one. Ultimately, those decisions are for Ministers.

Health and Social Care Update

Chris Grayling Excerpts

Thursday 18th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, absolutely. The hon. Gentleman is quite right and I totally agree with him. Anybody who works in an elderly care home should come forward now for a vaccine if they have not had it. We are working incredibly hard to try to make those vaccines as accessible as possible.

[Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con) [V]]

Thanks to the work of the Secretary of State and his team, I represent a constituency where most over-50s have had their first jab, where there are now very few covid patients in local hospitals, and where the rate of infections is very low and still falling. But I also represent a constituency where hospitality businesses are going bust right now, because they cannot hang on any longer. Given that the Secretary of State says that outdoor settings are very low risk, why do covid-secure hospitality businesses with table service in outdoor settings still have to wait another month to reopen, when the data shows pretty clearly that it would be pretty fine for them to reopen now?

[Matt Hancock]

We have set out the road map based on clinical advice. I am delighted to say that, because of the success of the vaccination programme so far, we are able to proceed down that road map.

Covid-19 Update

Chris Grayling Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con)]

I again congratulate my right hon. Friend on the 20 million milestone, which is fantastic achievement for everybody involved. May I probe him on the question of outdoor transmission? It has been quite clear in the past few days that the level of adherence to the rules has dropped in outdoor settings; has my right hon. Friend’s research shown that there is genuinely an issue around the transmission of the virus outdoors? Have we actually seen any significant incidents of widespread transmission in outdoor settings?

[Matt Hancock]

The clinical advice is that outdoors is safer than indoors—the likelihood of transmission outdoors is much lower—but that in crowded outdoor areas in particular it is not nil. Hence, the road map is based on opening up outdoors sooner, but people should still follow social distancing and, of course, follow the rules, which should mean that come the 29th of this month we are able to open up outdoors first.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Grayling Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

As we have repeatedly explained, supply is the rate-limiting factor. The hon. Member will no doubt have seen that there have been international discussions on the rate of supply, and countries around the world are finding supply the rate-limiting factor. Thankfully, thanks to the decisions that this Government took early, we have some of the best access to the supply of vaccine in the world. That is why we have one of the best vaccine delivery programmes in the world.

[Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con) [V]]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend again on the progress of the vaccination process. He should be proud of what he has achieved. The documents published yesterday about the road map did not appear to contain any assessment of the infection risk in individual settings, which could have demonstrated that there had been carefully informed decisions about the reasons for each individual restriction. Has that work been carried out? If so, will my right hon. Friend commit to publishing those assessments immediately?

[Matt Hancock]

Of course we assess this, but it is challenging to get to a statistical answer to the question that my right hon. Friend raises. When we have taken action to restrict access to areas where there is evidence of significant transmission, such as the hospitality industry, that confounds the statistical analysis because people cannot go into that environment and therefore the passing on of infection there reduces. This is a matter of evidence and judgment. It is a significant challenge, but the road map is based on our best assessment of the situation, which is based on clinical advice, including the focus on the fact that we know that outdoors is safer than indoors. Hence the early steps, after schools, are focused on opening things up outdoors.

Covid-19

Chris Grayling Excerpts

Monday 22nd February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con) [V]]

I wish to start by saying some words of praise for Ministers and, indeed, everyone involved in the vaccination programme. It has been an extraordinary achievement and put us fully on the path back to recovery as a nation. But that is why I am, frankly, disappointed by what I have heard today. The path set out this afternoon is too tentative and does not adequately take into account the impact of this pandemic on our society as a whole. We needed to do more, quicker. We needed to identify those things that are the lowest risk and allow them to start again now. We needed to give those people, particularly among the younger generation, whose mental health is under intense strain or whose business prospects and job prospects seem hopeless the most rapid safe path back to normality.

For example, there is virtually no evidence that the virus transmits easily outdoors, so why do we need to wait a month before a group of four or six people can go for a walk in the park? Why do we need to wait a month before a small group of people can start to play outdoor sports again? What difference does it really make if someone drives 50 miles for a walk with a relative, as long as it is outdoors?

I have argued all along that the strategy to reopen should be based on a hard-nosed assessment of risk. We know that the virus transmits most seriously in a small number of settings—in hospitals, care homes, schools, workplaces and indoors in the home in particular—but it does not transmit easily in the park, on the beach, on a tennis court or in the hills, so why are we not unlocking the great outdoors now to ease the pressures on people and give them more space in their lives so that they can start to rebuild their mental strength, which has been through such difficult times? Where is the risk in letting pubs open their gardens again for Easter, or zoos open their outdoor areas to visitors, and start to rebuild their finances; or in a promise today to reopen air corridors to low-risk countries later in the spring, rather than a tentative review? A trading nation cannot close its borders indefinitely. However good the furlough scheme may be, the longer we wait to reopen, the fewer businesses and jobs will be there when that day comes.

This Government, the Prime Minister, his team and the Health Secretary have done an extraordinary job in getting us to where we are in vaccinations, but this country and this Government must not blow that now with an approach that takes caution beyond common sense. Lord Hague was right in saying at the weekend that when the top nine groups have had their jabs, we should be unlocking almost everything, but where we know the risks are low, we should be unlocking now.

Covid Security at UK Borders

Chris Grayling Excerpts

Monday 1st February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con) [V]]

The past 12 months have been devastating for many people in my constituency and around the economy in different sectors—in hospitality, events, and entertainment. Jobs have virtually disappeared overnight. What has been particularly striking to me over that time is how many of the people in my constituency had been dependent on the travel sector for their job or their business. In a year when international travel has virtually ground to a halt, and it has by comparison with where we were before, their predicament is dreadful. While for many businesses there is some light at the end of the tunnel as the vaccination programme brings forward the day when lockdown restrictions can end, the same cannot right now easily be said for the travel sector. The issue is not about whether we can give people the chance to sun themselves on a beach; it is about the future of a sector that is crucial to our economy and that simply cannot cope with the loss of a second summer season in a row. This impact on a crucial sector is why the motion today is so poorly thought through.

I have to say, reluctantly, that I support the measures the Government have taken to restrict access to the UK from countries most at immediate risk from the new variants of the virus. Of course it is not desirable, but it has to happen. It is right to take a precautionary approach, but imposing these kinds of border restrictions on a blanket basis would have the effect of destroying even more jobs both here and elsewhere for no apparent reason, because the reality is that virus rates are higher here than in many of the countries people are coming from.

The challenge now is to ensure that the restrictions are as short-lived as possible and that we can reopen travel for this vital summer season without the risk of generating a resurgence of the virus in doing so. A solution to this, in my view, is before us and the Government must now take it. Last week, the Health Secretary told me that he was confident that lateral flow tests were a fit and proper way of preventing infection being imported into nursing homes, so why are they not the cornerstone of our strategy to open up airports and other means of travel, not right now, because the current restrictions are necessary, but as part of a plan to reopen the sector properly later this spring? Test people before they depart and test people on arrival. That way, we should not need to quarantine people. If a test result can show infection at the point of arrival and we can back that up with a properly policed quarantine system, there really is no reason why travel cannot reopen later this spring for a proper summer season.

If we do not do that, the result will be waves of job losses in a sector that is vital to the future for all of us. That is why the Opposition are being so thoughtless, in my view, when they call for this blanket lockdown. The consequences will be more businesses going bust and more jobs lost. That we cannot afford any more of than we absolutely have to for health reasons.

Vaccine Roll-out

Chris Grayling Excerpts

Thursday 21st January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

It is an incredibly important question. We are doing a huge amount of work on it. It is being led by the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi)—the vaccines roll-out Minister—who I think is sitting on the Front Bench. The need to reach all communities is paramount and that is ongoing now.

[Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con) [V]]

One of the sadnesses of the past year has been the way in which families have been unable to see relatives in care homes, often in the last few months of their lives. I commend the Secretary of State for his focus on vaccinating care home residents. All those families want visits to start again. What message can he give them about how quickly he can unlock care home visits again for those families? Will he also assure care homes that the Government still regard the lateral flow tests, which many want to use to vet potential visitors, as viable, reliable and able to be depended on to allow visits?

[Matt Hancock]

Yes. That last point is very important and we published extensive analysis that supports that view. On the broader point, we are going to look at the effectiveness in the real world of the vaccine as it is being rolled out and make sure that we look at who has been vaccinated and who is then testing positive in future to see the real-world effectiveness of the vaccine roll-out. Once we can see that effectiveness in the real world, we will then be able to consider all the different restrictions that are in place. Visiting care homes is obviously one of the restrictions that we had to bring in, but I entirely understand its consequences and the impact that it has on the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Covid-19 Update

Chris Grayling Excerpts

Wednesday 30th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

We will vaccinate NHS and social care staff as soon as we can. They are, of course, in the priority list. They are in priority group 2, except for social care home staff, who are in priority group 1. The groups are all set out according to clinical need. That is the basis on which we will vaccinate. We will also vaccinate at pace, which often means that spare vaccines that are left at the end of the day in a hospital or primary care setting are used to vaccinate staff who are to hand, where that can be done. That is being done right now. In short, the answer is that we are trying to do this as quickly as we possibly can.

[Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con) [V]]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend and his team on the work they have done to put us in such a relatively strong position to vaccinate in the coming months, and I pay tribute to the team here at the Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust for the work that they are doing at the moment. This area has been in tier 4 for 10 days, and there is a continuing acceleration in the number of infections reported locally. By definition, those are not happening in the business premises that were closed as a result of moving to tiers 3 and 4. What information does the Secretary of State have about where these infections are being transmitted under tier 4?

[Matt Hancock]

The majority of infections happen within the household, from one person in a household to another. That is, perhaps, inevitable, because we are physically closest to those with whom we live. Over the last 10 days, it has not yet been possible to do a full analysis of where we think the transmission is happening within tier 4. The reason for that is simply that the data are not available, and the data are particularly difficult to interpret over the Christmas period. I am very happy to keep talking to my right hon. Friend to try to understand as much as we can about where the transmissions are happening, because that is the route to keeping them under control in the least damaging way possible until we can complete the vaccine roll-out.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Grayling Excerpts

Tuesday 17th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, that is right. A vaccine will be approved only if it is both effective and safe, so when your ticket comes up, if you are asked to take the vaccine, then I and the whole serious clinical establishment—all of those who understand the vaccines and the value of them —will be urging people right across the country to get it, because it is good for you, it protects your loved ones and it protects your community. It is the primary route, alongside other things like testing, by which we will get out of this and get life back more closely to normal.

[Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con)]

I welcome the Government’s substantial investment in hospital services in my area. The Secretary of State knows that I remain disappointed that Epsom, was not the NHS’s choice of location— rather than Sutton—but will he assure me that as the NHS reviews the impact of the pandemic and looks at future capacity needs, he will keep an open mind if that decision needs to be changed, because in the end Epsom represents better value for the health service?

[Matt Hancock]

I appreciate my right hon. Friend’s tenacity and doggedness in making the case for Epsom. I am a big supporter of the decision that has been made, and I am afraid, from his point of view, that the final decision on the location of the new hospital—in Sutton—has now been made. However, I am always open-minded to what further health services can be deployed in Epsom itself, and I suggest that my right hon. Friend and I work together on that.

Covid-19 Update

Chris Grayling Excerpts

Tuesday 10th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The hon. Lady tempts me, but I will resist the temptation. We do not know when this vaccine will be ready, because I will not allow it to be rolled out before it is clinically safe—and anyway, the independent regulator would not license it before it is clinically safe. She asked how we will treat people who have been vaccinated and those who have not been. The problem is that only when we can assess and monitor the epidemic-modifying effects of any vaccine—not only how much it protects an individual but how much it stops transmission—can we make further judgments about the non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as social distancing rules, that we have in place. We will keep that under review and monitor it extremely carefully.

[Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on what he has done to secure access to supplies of what we hope will be approved vaccines very soon. He has done a fantastic job on that, as he has on the expansion of testing and the 15-minute tests. However, may I take him back to the issue of testing in the aviation sector? Prior to the pandemic, we had the biggest and most important aviation sector in Europe. Since the pandemic, that sector has collapsed, yet last week Lord Bethell told the House of Lords that the chief medical officer believes that the aviation sector is a low priority for testing. It may be a low priority in his eyes, but it is economically vital to us. I urge my right hon. Friend to make sure that those 15-minute tests are made available to the aviation sector at the earliest opportunity.

[Matt Hancock]

The expansion of testing capacity obviously opens up the number of different uses to which it can be put. We are working closely with the aviation industry—my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport is leading those discussions, but I am heavily involved in them—and I hope we can make some progress soon.