Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No.3) Regulations 2020

Jo Churchill Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2020 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Jo Churchill)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020, No. 750).

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Ali, for what I believe is your first time in the Chair.

The regulations we are discussing came into force on 18 July. They were necessary to give effect to the announcement made on 3 July by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, setting out the Government’s goal to enable as many people as possible to live their lives as normally and as safely as possible. To achieve that, the Prime Minister set out the need to move away from blanket national measures towards targeted local measures.

I am aware that there are concerns in Parliament about allowing for timely scrutiny of regulations that have been laid and made in response to the public health emergency caused by coronavirus—in particular about the timing of debates—as I am sure I will hear again from the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston. We have listened to those concerns and have endeavoured to hold this debate as early as possible after laying the regulations, taking the summer recess into account.

Three main activities are being undertaken to support the shift in focus to managing localised outbreaks through proportionate local responses. First, local authorities have now drafted local outbreak management plans, which set out how they will deal with outbreaks in their local areas. Secondly, we have published the contain framework, which sets out national expectations about how and when upper-tier local authorities should take community protection actions to manage the transmission of covid-19. Thirdly, open businesses and venues have been asked to assist the NHS test and trace service by keeping a temporary 21-day record of their customers and visitors, which will help to contain outbreaks.

Local authorities have specific legal powers under existing public health, environmental health and health and safety laws. Those powers apply under a patchwork of triggers or, in some cases, require an application to the magistrate, which obviously leads to some delay before they can be enforced. They are not sufficient to enable local authorities to implement fully the community protections set out in the contain framework, or to do so with the speed needed to manage an outbreak effectively.

Although we expect local authorities to work on the basis of consent within local communities, there may none the less be situations in which local restrictive measures need to be put in place to contain the virus. We want to ensure that a uniform and sufficient suite of powers exists to enable local decision makers to take action locally and promptly, enabling the mitigation of local covid-19 outbreaks through a new and consistent set of regulations.

The Government’s ambition is to empower upper-tier local authorities to be able to implement targeted restrictions so that the need for the Government to impose more serious restrictions is reduced. Before these local intervention regulations came into force, local authorities did not have the power to impose fully the community protection actions set out in the contain framework. As a result, we introduced the regulations to enable local decision makers to take prompt and appropriate action.

The powers in the regulations are exercisable by upper-tier local authorities in England. A local authority may give directions imposing prohibitions, requirements or restrictions: in regulation 4, relating to individual premises; in regulation 5, to events; and in regulation 6, to outdoor public places. Before giving a direction, the local authority must deem that there is a serious and imminent threat to public health, and that giving direction is necessary and proportionate to control the incidence or further spread of coronavirus. In determining that, the local authority must pay due regard to any advice from its director of public health. Local authorities are supported in their decision making by guidance published alongside the regulations.

As Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend has the power to direct a local authority to use its powers under the regulations where he considers that the same criteria are met. Before doing so, he is required to consult with the chief medical officer or one of the deputy chief medical officers of the Department of Health and Social Care. To date, we have not had cause to issue such a direction to a local authority, but we have seen authorities moving swiftly to use their powers to protect their local populations.

There is a mandatory requirement for local authorities to review the continuing need for any directions given under these regulations every seven days. The regulations require that if, following the review, the local authority considers that any of the legal criteria to give the direction are no longer met, that local authority must revoke the direction and either not replace it, or replace it with a direction that does meet the necessary conditions. A similar duty applies to the Secretary of State, who must direct the local authority to revoke the direction if he considers that the restriction or requirement is no longer necessary. If my right hon. Friend directs a local authority to impose a direction, it is still for the local authority to terminate.

A local authority must notify the Secretary of State as soon as reasonably practicable once it has given a direction under these regulations. To date, 61 such notifications have been received from 23 different local authorities. To manage cross-boundary impacts, the local authority must also provide neighbouring authorities with notice when these powers are exercised. Neighbouring authorities are required to consider whether they should also implement any measures under their own powers. If a local authority decides to give a direction, it must publish that direction in writing and provide it in writing to any person named in the direction. The local authority must also take reasonable steps to give advance notice to specified types of person when making each type of direction, and ensure that the direction is brought to their attention.

The regulations permit someone affected by the direction to appeal to a magistrates court or make representations to the Secretary of State. If the Secretary of State determines that the local authority should have exercised its powers in a different way, having regard to the required conditions, he will direct the local authority in question to amend. To date, one individual has made representations to the Secretary of State, who upheld the direction given by the local authority.

The enforcement regime is broadly based on the provisions set out in the national regulations. This includes the prohibition notices for businesses or fixed penalty notices issued by local authority or other officers if a direction is breached, or for obstruction of police or local authority officers. There is a ladder regime of increasing fines for each FPN, from £100 to £3,200. That ladder takes into account FPNs issued under other national and regional lockdown regulations.

Police will also have the power to direct an event that contravenes directions to stop, and to direct people to leave, or remove people from a relevant area if need be. With regard to public outdoor places, the police will have the power to take action when it is necessary to do so. This includes directing a person to leave a restricted area, or removing them if need be. Offences are created for breaching a direction, obstructing a police or local authority officer, and failing to comply with a reasonable instruction or prohibition notice given under the regulations. Offences are punishable on a summary conviction by a fine. These regulations have their own six-month sunset clause, separate from all other regulations, and so will expire at the end of 17 January 2021.

Where are we now? Coronavirus is the biggest challenge that the UK has faced in decades. The resilience and fortitude of the British people in complying with the national lockdown that was introduced in March has been a truly national effort, and something we can all be proud of. It is, of course, welcome that we have been able to start easing the national restrictions in line with the road map, reflecting the continued decline in daily death rates and the downgrading of the covid alert level from 4 to 3. But we always knew that in reality the path out of lockdown would not be entirely smooth. It was likely that infection would rise in particular areas and workplaces, which we have seen, and we would need to be able to respond quickly and flexibly to those outbreaks.

We are now working closely with local authorities and at a national level to ensure we have the data and analytical capability to spot potential outbreaks quickly. We have and will continue to develop a range of tools and powers that will allow us to respond effectively and proportionately. These regulations have demonstrated our willingness to empower local authorities and take action where needed.

I am really grateful to all parliamentarians for their continuing engagement in this challenging process and their valuable scrutiny of the regulations. I commend the regulations to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jo Churchill]

I thank in particular the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston and my hon. Friend the Member for Windsor, who have shown, in very different ways, exactly why the regulations are needed and how well they are working. Where people are talking together and using the information that is getting to the frontline, they are now able to respond and to act quickly.

In the initial stages, we were keen to have a national approach to protect the NHS, in order that we could then start to move the policy forward. That is what we have done by enabling the local authorities, Mayors and so on to talk together so that they—as both hon. Members alluded to—may deal with their local communities. They know their local communities best, and that has come across clearly.

I am sure that the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston will forgive me, but I will trot through as many of his points as I can remember that have a vague relevance to the regulations that we are discussing today. He will forgive me, perhaps, for not going off at a complete tangent and following him down the various paths on which he wished to take us. However, I thank him for his contribution.

The regulations are necessary, and they are important for three reasons. First, and most importantly, they empower local authorities to protect people in their area from this terrible virus. Giving directions is a difficult decision for local authorities to take, but they are in the best place to know the right interventions to impose in order to stop the virus spreading locally unchecked. They are often using the regulations as a warning shot and, in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Windsor, they give the local authorities the power to be a little more attuned. We have seen that very much in Leicester: two particular roads appeared to be flouting the rules, and those two roads were targeted in a specific way, enabling the locality to respond to the challenge much more effectively.

Secondly, giving those powers to local authorities is important because they protect those of us who do not live in those areas. As a result of local interventions, outbreaks can be prevented or contained locally, stopping infection from spreading elsewhere, which is significant.

Thirdly, enabling local authorities to introduce these restrictions shows our absolute determination to respond to outbreaks of the virus in a focused way. As I have said, we will learn from the use of these powers as local authorities give directions for preventing transmission and respond to localised outbreaks.

These regulations are made under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, which sets out a framework for health protection that requires much of the detailed provision to be delivered through these regulations. The regulations enable local authorities to impose targeted local measures to prevent and control outbreaks in their area. However, occasionally there has still been the need for the Government to impose more serious restrictions, as we have seen in Leicester and parts of the north of England, in what are often referred to as local lockdowns. If the possibility of imposing more serious interventions is being considered, local leaders, chief executives and the directors of public health are consulted by the NHS test and trace team, Public Health England and the joint biosecurity centre, to inform that decision making and to be consulted on it.

Today’s debate has provided an opportunity for hon. Members to debate the range of activities that the Government have undertaken in response to coronavirus. Moving to the specific points raised by the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston, we always said that there would be local outbreaks that would require local action, so I do not think that what we are doing in these regulations should come as any surprise. Will it cause confusion? Local authorities can already close premises for various reasons, such as environmental health reasons, so I do not think that it is unusual in our current environment for people to expect changes to come quite fluidly.

It is really important that we are able to act quickly and stop local outbreaks, and this is the right approach. To enable local authorities to have the power to do so, we have made another £300 million available to them to develop their plans. As we have heard, those plans are working, and as the hon. Gentleman himself said, they are very important in making sure that any action is attuned to the local area. That money is on top of the £3.7 billion provided to local authorities to support the response to the pandemic.

The hon. Gentleman asked whether the Secretary of State heard about things in good order; he hears as soon as is reasonably practicable about where these directions have been laid. As yet, however, we do not have any data on the fines or the fixed penalty notices; we will have it quite soon, when these regulations have been laid. That question made me smile wryly, because the summer recess was between the dates. Therefore, although six weeks have passed, there have been only a handful of parliamentary sitting days, so I think we have got on to things as speedily as possible.

An impact assessment is not required for regulations that last for less than a year, and these regulations are due to expire in less than a year, so there is no such requirement. In the other place, Baroness Thornton asked a similar question about how data was being used. Data is key to the scientific community, so that scientists can be availed of it to fight covid-19. At the start of this pandemic, only six short months ago, we had very little data. Now, as we have heard, we have the ability to drill down even to a postcode level, to know where somebody who may have had a positive test is. That data is now at our fingertips.

As of today, we have the capacity to do 357,873 tests. Although I would freely say that, yes, some of those tests are challenging, 84.3% of people taking tests have their results the next day, and over 42.2% of people taking home tests get their results within 48 hours. Some 16 million tests have been done in this country, and that has been built from a standing start. I pay tribute to Public Health England and others; it has been a broad coalition of the NHS, public health and private industry that has allowed us to do this amazing job.

[Justin Madders]

On the question of tests, the Minister gave the figure of some 375,000 capacity—

[Jo Churchill]

The figure is 357,000.

[Justin Madders]

The Minister will be aware that the number of tests processed each day is somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000. In the context of hearing about people’s problems with accessing tests, where does she think the issue is in getting that capacity to the right places?

[Jo Churchill]

I will briefly explain, in 30 seconds. We have always said that we would go to where the problem arose, so it is right and proper that where we have an issue of rising prevalence, we will take our mobile testing centres there. We have 73 regional centres, 21 satellite centres, 236 mobile centres and 72 walk-through centres. Ensuring that we can be fluid in our approach and that we get to those places where we see a rise in numbers is, in my opinion, the right approach. Do we have more to do? Yes, we do, but I think we can proudly say that we are hitting numbers that are now ahead of many other countries in Europe and across the world, and showing that we are building a world-class system that can help to protect people.

The argument is that we need more testing, we need to be able to trace and we need to build that capacity. That is why we have recruited another 18,000 into Public Health England, to back up that effort to test and trace. Supporting the local authorities, we have contact tracing, the daily situational report, the daily exceedance report and the daily surveillance reports, so that we can help people to get the granular information that helps them to target their local area.

As I said, an impact assessment is not required for regulations that last for less than a year, and these regulations will expire in six months. However, the Government are considering the economic impact of the regulations on businesses and individuals—that was another question the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston asked—and the personal impact on those with protected characteristics; on people’s mental health and wellbeing; on religious groups and many others. This is a highly complex situation that we are dealing with.

The dashboards for local authorities are updated daily with all the data received to midnight the previous day. We are ensuring that all local and public health bodies have the data they need for any plans they might be making for preparedness for potential outbreaks, and we produce detailed data in dashboards for local authorities to give them clarity regarding their local area.

We have started sharing that postcode-level testing and case data with local authorities, and it is available to them at any time. It is important that we send the positive message that, while this is work in progress, we are doing more and more each week to help them to get more information, because that is vital for unlocking the economy and opening our lives up as far as we can in this covid-tinged world that we are all having to get used to.

The Department for Education has published full guidance on the protective measures for schools, colleges and childcare settings, which should help to minimise risk. The guidance includes the PHE-endorsed system of controls that helps settings to implement those measures in order to prevent and control any infection. Those are outlined more explicitly in DFE guidance.

We have agreed to provide a monthly report to Parliament detailing the measures imposed by local authorities and Ministers under these powers, and will shortly be making a written ministerial statement setting out the record of the notifications received, which will be deposited in the House Library. The Secretary of State comes to the Dispatch Box to answer questions more than, I think, any other Secretary of State, and I am sure that when he next does so, the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston will have ample opportunity to ask his questions.

However, as of 2 September, the Secretary of State had been notified of the 61 directions that had been given by the 23 local authorities to which I alluded earlier. Examples of those directions given by local authorities include closing a funfair due to be held in an area where there was a high incidence of the virus; closing a large entertainment venue for failing to ensure social distancing measures were in place, or complied with by visitors; imposing restrictions on the organiser of a large social event to ensure guests complied with social distancing guidance; controlling people gathering in a street outside restaurants—trying to ensure people stay physically distanced while waiting to go inside areas is, of course, very important too—and prohibiting a planned food festival where in excess of 8,000 visitors were expected.

The extent of the powers means that local authorities can give directions, but they are not always necessary. For example, local authorities do not need any further powers to close nightclubs, as they can already be closed under the England-wide regulations. For raves, a local authority has the power to give a direction to impose prohibitions, requirements or restrictions to stop an event, in addition to pre-existing rave legislation. Indoor raves of more than 30 people are already illegal. There are further restrictions on holding gatherings of more than 30 people in public outdoor spaces, and stricter gathering restrictions in certain protected areas under regional lockdowns.

Only the Secretary of State can close a school using the powers in the Coronavirus Act 2020, but he can delegate that power to a local authority if necessary. For essential infrastructure, the regulations prohibit local authorities from giving a direction in respect of businesses that are considered essential. Guidance has been published in relation to what is essential infrastructure; that guidance is readily available, but includes registered childcare providers, airports, doctors’ surgeries, train stations, and nuclear facilities. In addition to the powers given to local authorities under the regulations, Public Health England, the joint biosecurity centre and NHS test and trace are consistently and continuously monitoring the levels of infection and other data on the prevalence of the virus across the country.

We continue to work closely with councils, local MPs and scientific experts to support local responses. Indeed, there are several people in this room to whom I have spoken about particular issues in their locality, to ensure we feed that information in so that we can make the best decisions. However, we have always been clear that we will need, and will take, swift and decisive action where necessary to contain local outbreaks by imposing more serious restrictions, often referred to as a local lockdown—for example, stopping people from different households meeting up with each other, or closing specific business sectors. Those nationally imposed measures at local level are in addition to the powers given to local authorities by the regulations that we are debating today.

I thank right hon. and hon. Members for the points that have been raised and the contributions that have been made. I will conclude by recording on behalf of the Government my thanks to the people of England for their ongoing observance of covid-19 guidance and legislation, helping to reduce the burden on our vital services and save lives through this crisis. As the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston has said, every life lost is a tragedy, so we still need to bear down and work hard to make sure that we do absolutely everything we can to ensure that is kept to a minimum. I commend the regulations to the Committee.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That the Committee has considered the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020, No. 750).