Covid-19 Update

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I can confirm what the Prime Minister has set out: schools will be the first in the queue for reopening. We will consider the data in the middle of this month, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister will set out a statement after that, and we will give two weeks’ notice. Schools will not open before 8 March, and of course we will look at the data, as I set out in a previous answer.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC) [V]]

The Health Minister in Wales has now admitted, at last, that many lives could have been saved had the Welsh Labour Government locked down sooner last year. Does the Secretary of State believe that an earlier general lockdown in England would have saved many lives? If so, how does that belief inform the quarantine and lockdown decisions that his Government now face?

[Matt Hancock]

We have taken action very rapidly when we have seen rises in cases. The most recent example here in England was, of course, right at the start of this year, when we saw the sharp spike in cases and took very rapid action to close schools after some of them had been open for just one day. We do not take such measures lightly and we understand the impact that they have, but they were absolutely necessary.