Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Bolton) Regulations 2020

Jo Churchill Excerpts

Tuesday 29th September 2020 General Committees

[The Chair]

Before we begin, I need to remind hon. Members about social distancing, so thank you all for sitting in appropriately marked spaces or at the back of the room. Hansard colleagues would be grateful if you could send any speaking notes to [e-mail].

[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) (Bolton) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020, No. 974).

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes. The regulations came into force on 10 September. On that date, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced that the latest epidemiological data showed a dramatic increase in the incidence rates of covid-19 in the Bolton area, leaping from 18.6 per 100,000 people to more than 100 per 100,000 people within a week. Test positivity was also higher than the national average.

Given the rapid increases in cases, the local authority understood the seriousness of the situation and was proactive and willing to take more stringent action. It increased testing by bringing in mobile testing units and distributed 2,000 home testing kits throughout the community. The University of Bolton carried out a comprehensive risk assessment and made plans for the imminent start of term. The council engaged with the university and local businesses to discourage them from promoting large events to coincide with the start of term.

Learning from the outbreak in Leicester earlier in the summer, Bolton was one of the first areas to roll out its own locally supported contact tracing. The start date was brought forward by two days in response to the spike in cases. At that time, there was no clear understanding of what was driving transmission. The council, Public Health England and the Joint Biosecurity Centre analysed the available NHS Test and Trace data and other data to try to identify what was driving transmission.

The results were interesting. It was found that 93% of cases were among 18 to 49-year-olds, two thirds of cases were in the 20 to 39-year-old age group, the main ethnic group testing positive for the virus was white British, and the cases were understood not to come from the most deprived parts of the population. The cases were also geographically dispersed across the Bolton area, rather than being clustered in hotspots, as was the familiar pattern in other parts of the north of England at the time. There was anecdotal—I stress “anecdotal”—evidence that an outbreak was linked to a local pub and started from a visitor who had recently returned from overseas. There were also concerns that transmission was happening in workplaces, but that was not thought to be the main driver of the spike in cases.

It is important to remember that at this point Bolton was already subject to interventions as part of the protected area defined in the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions on Gatherings) (North of England) Regulations 2020. That meant that households in Bolton could not meet up with each other in private homes or gardens, and certain businesses remained closed despite being able to reopen elsewhere in England.

Given the urgency of the situation in Bolton, we used the emergency procedure to make the present set of regulations as soon as we could. They gave effect to the decision set out by the Secretary of State, responding to the latest epidemiological evidence and local insights. These regulations went further than just repeating the restriction on different households mixing in each other’s homes by requiring certain businesses to remain closed. They seek to address the increased risk of transmission associated with people’s reduced compliance with social distancing guidance when they are out socialising in and around hospitality venues. The new restrictions prohibit food and drink businesses from opening, other than to sell items to be collected or delivered and consumed away from the premises. They cannot operate at all between the hours of 10 pm and 5 am. Other non-essential businesses and services are also required to close between 10 pm and 5 am.

The restrictions are enforced by the same regime as the other health protection regulations, although there is the creation of new offences punishable by fixed penalty notices or fines following conviction.

We published guidance to help people living in Bolton understand what they can and cannot do under the restrictions, and it was updated every time there was a change. The local authority’s guidance went even further, given the exceptionally quick increase in the incidence rates. It advised residents to use public transport only for essential purposes and not to mix with other households, even when they were outside their homes. The local authority also decided to reissue previous national guidance on shielding for the clinically extremely vulnerable.

The concern about the outbreak in Bolton has been significant, and engagement with local leaders throughout this period has been extensive and productive. I thank the local authority, the local resilience forum, Public Health England, the Joint Biosecurity Centre and the local director of public health, Helen Lowey, for their engagement.

Action had already been taken to protect people in Bolton, including increases in testing and public health capacity. We had hoped that those interventions and the work of local public health teams would get the infection rate down without our having to take more drastic action, but that was not to be. As is required by the regulations, we have reviewed the situation at least once every 14 days and the incidence rates have dropped in the last few days to 205 per 100,000 people for the period of 12 September to 18 September, although I understand that they have risen again.

We always knew that the path out of lockdown would not be entirely smooth. It was always likely that infections would rise in particular areas or workplaces, and that we would need to be able to respond quickly and flexibly to those outbreaks. These regulations have demonstrated our willingness and ability to take action where we need to. Of course, we will use the experience of these measures in Bolton to inform and help us develop our responses to any future outbreaks. As I said earlier, there have been ongoing reviews of the Bolton regulations; the next review is due today and of course we will make public the outcome of that review shortly.

I am grateful to all Members for their continued engagement in this challenging process and in the scrutiny of the regulations. In particular, I thank all those people in the protected area in Bolton who have responded so well to the measures that have been put in place. None of this is easy.

I commend the regulations to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jo Churchill]

I understand and recognise how, as the hon. Member for Nottingham North said and the hon. Members for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Justin Madders) and for Warwick and Leamington have said on many occasions, there is a willingness to work together. They want us to get ahead of the curve, as it were. I understand why that is, but we introduce such regulations under section 45R of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 because we need to move at speed. These are public health emergencies rather than anything to do with the broader setting.

We recognise the impact of localised restrictions on local businesses. That is why we provided Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council with £57,980,000 of business support grant funding. Businesses have access to a large number of support schemes including discretionary grants and tax breaks because there is a need to protect both people and the economy. The measures we are taking in Bolton seek to find balance on that difficult tightrope. No one wants to put restrictions on people’s lives.

The hon. Member for Nottingham North alluded to yesterday’s debate. One thing I took from it is how the power of many of the speeches came from the impact on people’s lives from a human capital point of view and how that spins out. As I said on the Floor of the House yesterday, we are working hard to move things forward and have more dialogue. I appreciate the articulation of his willingness to work with us.

[Mrs Maria Miller (Basingstoke) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Nokes. I am sure hon. Members do not need their attention drawn to the fact that the Minister was on her feet in the Chamber 12 hours ago. It is astonishing to see her here doing a great job of presenting the regulations to the Committee.

I want to press the Minister on working together. The hon. Member for Nottingham North raised an important point about the timeliness of consideration of legislation. There is obviously a huge amount of secondary legislation at the moment. Could the House of Commons and Parliament be doing more to support the Government to that end? Should we press the authorities to do more?

[Jo Churchill]

I thank my right hon. Friend for her intervention, which I am sure the Whip, my hon. Friend the Member for Erewash, will take away through the usual channels. Everyone wants to see these things succeed so that we get out of this covid-tinged world and into something more akin to what we are used to.

The hon. Member for Nottingham North asked me about the restrictions. It is too early to know whether they have bedded through. One of the challenges is that if we leave things as they are when we see the spike rising, the argument is that we are too late, but if we go too early, the argument is that we are impinging on people’s lives. One of the big problems with the disease is that, when we see the prevalence rise, there is a 10-day lag before we see the number of people entering hospital rise and then a further 10-day lag before we see the number of deaths rise.

I can report that, unfortunately, from this week, the positivity rate is 241.8 per 100,000. The next review is on 9 October.

These are challenging times. The information I read out was based on local intelligence from the University of Bolton, which knows its own community. In many debates I have been challenged about getting granular and getting local. This is a fine example of where the director of public health and other local bodies are helping us drive the right solutions locally. For my money, that is the right way to proceed.

We recognise that, for many, self-isolating for 10 to 14 days to avoid passing on the virus is a challenge. The Prime Minister announced that, from 28 September, we will be supporting those on low incomes by paying them £500 if they cannot work from home or have lost income as a result of the requirement to self-isolate. That needs to be fed through to see if it also has an effect. The requirement to self-isolate became law yesterday and there are penalties for those who breach the rules. There will also be penalties for employers who fail to support the requirement, for example, by threatening self-isolating staff with redundancy if they do not come to work. We hope that will send a clear message about the importance of self-isolating.

We take Public Health England’s report on BAME communities extremely seriously. However, there is still work to do in understanding how the disease affects different groups, including BAME communities, as well as the broader communities we are working with. Expecting a reliable result within a week or 10 days is difficult in this situation. Other factors, such as comorbidities and occupational risk, mean that every situation is more complex than it might seem at face value. We are investing a large amount in medical and clinical research to get a better understanding. In the meantime, we are making it a priority to safeguard BAME workers in the NHS who might be at risk and in need of specific treatment, while making sure that all workplaces have been risk-assessed.

The decision to impose even more stringent restrictions in Bolton is based on a number of factors and local intelligence. They include not just the positivity and incidence rates but the extent of high-risk behaviours. The next review will take place on 9 October.

I conclude by thanking the people of Bolton and particularly its NHS and care workers and all the city’s key workers for their ongoing hard work to keep our vital services running and save lives through this difficult time. I urge everyone to get behind hands, face and space, so we can eradicate the virus from our country as soon as possible.

Question put and agreed to.