Business of the House

Henry Smith Excerpts

Thursday 3rd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am so sorry that the hon. Gentleman is disappointed. I am wounded at that prospect.

On his main point, the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Members of Parliament have a right to hold Ministers to account, not officials. It is by absolute exception that officials may respond, usually on immigration matters where an official response is in fact more useful. It is a routine courtesy. Ministers know that a Privy Counsellor should expect to get a response from a Privy Counsellor, which is very often the Secretary of State in a Department or a Minister of State, and other Members should expect to get a ministerial response. Getting responses, which I think we may all have received, written by officials that bear no relation to the letter that has been sent is not how Government business should be carried on. I encourage Members to write to Ministers and, if they get an unsatisfactory response, to write again and copy me in. I will take this up for any Member who does not get a proper response. We are not doing this for fun. We are not doing it because we want the answers. We are doing it for our constituents and that is where Governments are there to be held to account. Yes, I entirely support what the hon. Gentleman is saying.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con) [V]]

I am very grateful for the announcement by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House of a general debate on aviation to take place next Thursday. If I could catch the Chair’s eye, I would be extremely grateful. Might we have consideration of a statement on the importance of covid-19 testing for inbound passengers not only to increase the confidence of people to travel, particularly by aviation, but for confidence in public health and so that we are not at a competitive disadvantage to countries such as Germany and France, who do test for covid-19?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

The Health Secretary was on the wireless this morning talking about testing, and I thought what he had to say was extremely important. There are great efforts being made to ensure that more testing is available and that faster—immediate—testing is available.

As I understand it, though I will bear correction, we cannot be certain that somebody who is tested at 9 o’clock in the morning will not have developed symptoms by 9 o’clock the following morning, and the tests are not predictive of somebody who is not yet showing symptoms. That is the risk with testing people at airports: the symptoms may develop later. The testing is improving. I think half a billion pounds is being spent by the Government on behalf of taxpayers in improving testing, so this may improve, and my hon. Friend makes a very good point, but I am afraid that we are not there yet.

Virtual participation in proceedings concluded (Order, 2 September.)