Covid-19 Update

Clive Betts Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

My hon. Friend makes an important point; especially in parts of the world such as the south-west, we have to make sure we get the treatment out and we get the recovery of the NHS from covid, so that we can get things going again for people who have been waiting for operations, which might have been delayed necessarily because of the pandemic. The NHS has set a goal of getting back to 95% of these elective operations and has put with it the funding to make that happen, and we have to make it happen, especially in rural communities and right across the country.

[Mr Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State says that we all need to work together, and I am sure he will agree that we need to make better use of the excellence of public health officials at the local level. The director of public health in Sheffield, Greg Fell, has said to me that there are two obstacles to doing that. One, of course, is the need for more resources from the centre to enable local level activity to take place. Secondly, he says that local authorities such as Sheffield have not got full access to the data under the contact tracing and advisory service system. Currently, they have access only to the case management element of the system and not to the contact management element. That second element is made available only to authorities on the watch list. Will the Secretary of State now remove that obstacle and make sure that all authorities that really want to engage fully in this are enabled to do so?

[Matt Hancock]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important technical point, which I will take away and look at.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alyn Smith (Stirling) (SNP)]

Like many people in Scotland, I am a former Labour supporter and I switched to the SNP some time ago.

[Mr Betts]

We all make mistakes.

[Alyn Smith]

If I was in England, I would be, but I am in Scotland, so I am SNP.

I have much sympathy for the Secretary of State, who is doing a difficult job at a difficult time. If he is promoting a precautionary approach, he will have allies on these Benches. That said, does he agree that the exhortations from the Prime Minister to get people back into crowded transport systems, crowded city centres and congested offices is irresponsible at this time and undermines his public health messaging?