Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the letter by the Medical Director for Primary Care and the Director of Primary Care at NHS England and NHS Improvement to Primary Care Network (PCN)-led local vaccination sites and community pharmacy-led local vaccination sites, published on 13 February, whether PCN-led local vaccination sites are required to invite anyone who has ever had an emergency asthma admission as part of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s cohort six.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS England advised local vaccination sites that Primary Care Networks should focus their efforts on inviting priority cohort six, which includes adults who had required hospital admission due to the severity of their asthma.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when each NHS Nightingale Hospital opened; how many patients have been accommodated in each such hospital in each week since they opened; whether any such hospitals have been permanently closed; and, if any such hospitals have closed, when.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The opening dates of each of the Nightingale sites are shown in the following table.
Date | Nightingale Site |
3 April 2020 | London |
16 April 2020 | Birmingham |
17 April 2020 | Manchester |
21 April 2020 | Harrogate |
27 April 2020 | Bristol |
5 May 2020 | Sunderland |
6 July 2020 | Exeter |
This number of patients accommodated is not available in the format requested. NHS England and NHS Improvement are collating some data relating to patient activity in the Nightingale hospitals but this information has not been centrally validated. Only the NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter, NHS Nightingale Hospital North West and the NHS Nightingale Hospital London have provided inpatient services. Nightingale hospitals were activated based on local clinical decisions in response to patient demand and are now in the process of being decommissioned.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 14 December (HL11081), whether a local authority which (1) has used, or (2) is expected to use, all of the funding provided for the costs of discretionary £500 payments to people who do not fulfil the main eligibility criteria but will still face hardship if they have to self-isolate should (a) announce that the pot is empty and no more such payments can be made, (b) pay further applicants who qualify out of their own general funds, or (c) apply to the Government for further funding; and whether such local authorities can make a reduced payment to more eligible persons.
Answered by Lord Bethell
If a local authority has used all of its discretionary funding, it is a matter for the authority to decide whether to accept further applications or to use other sources of funding to make these payments. While local authorities cannot apply directly for further discretionary funding, the Government has increased provision to local authorities to make discretionary payments to £20 million per month from March 2021.The amount paid for approved applications under the Test and Trace Support Payment scheme remains at £500 per case and as such local authorities cannot make a reduced payment.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have downloaded the NHS COVID-19 application; how many contacts of people with COVID-19 tested positive after being traced through (1) the NHS COVID-19 application, and (2) other means, on each day since 1 January; and of such contacts, how many they were (1) able, and (2) not able, to communicate with.
Answered by Lord Bethell
As of 27 January 2021, the NHS COVID-19 app has been downloaded 21,629,902 times. As COVID-19 app users are anonymous, we cannot determine who has or has not been contacted by Test and Trace as well as receiving an app notification to self-isolate following contact with a positive case.
The information is relating to those communicated with is not held in the format requested, as data is not collected on a daily basis.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what priority they will give to (1) COVID-19 testing, (2) ensuring that people with COVID-19 isolate, (3) contact tracing, and (4) tracking the movements of people with COVID-19, as part of their strategy for preventing the spread of COVID-19 as the number of cases reduce.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government has put in place the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities created in British history. NHS Test and Trace has capacity to respond to increases in demand and people can have confidence that if they have symptoms and need a test, they can get one, and get their result the next day. Over 72 million tests have been processed so far and we have the capacity to carry out almost 800,000 tests per day The Test and Trace Support Payment has been introduced in response to feedback from local authorities and directors of public health that some of their residents were struggling to self-isolate as directed due to financial constraints. It is to help ensure that people on low incomes self-isolate when they test positive or are identified as a contact, and to encourage more people to get tested. This will help to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. 86.4% (171,847) of people who tested positive and were transferred to the contact tracing system were reached and asked to provide information about their contacts and 96.6% of contacts where communication details were given were reached and told to self-isolate. This has remained constant for the past five weeks. It is a legal requirement to self-isolate if you have Covid symptoms, receive a positive test result, or are told to isolate by NHS Test and Trace.
The vast majority of people are complying – and know that we all have a role to play in getting this virus under control. And for those who don’t, the police can and will request data from NHS Test and Trace to confirm that an individual has a legal duty to self-isolate.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 lateral flow tests have been carried out in (1) Lancashire, (2) Pendle and, (3) Burnley, each week since the mass testing programme using these tests started; and whether such tests are now available on request to members of the public whether or not they have COVID-19 symptoms.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The following table shows the number of tests carried out per week in Lancashire since mass testing in started on 21 October 2020.
Week commencing | Number of tests |
21 October 2020 | 1 |
26 October 2020 | 1 |
2 November 2020 | 35 |
9 November 2020 | 331 |
16 November 2020 | 347 |
23 November 2020 | 462 |
30 November 2020 | 4,998 |
7 December 2020 | 2,974 |
14 December 2020 | 3,065 |
21 December 2020 | 2,885 |
28 December 2020 | 3,582 |
4 January 2021 | 15,899 |
11 January 2021 | 23,439 |
18 January 2021 | 33,450 |
25 January 2021 | 50,844 |
1 February 2021 | 57,173 |
8 February 2021 | 53,088 |
15 February 2021 | 32,655 |
The following table shows the number of tests per week in Pendle since mass testing started on 7 November 2020.
Week Commencing | Number of Tests |
7 November 2020 | 2 |
9 November 2020 | 5 |
16 November 2020 | 5 |
23 November 2020 | 11 |
30 November 2020 | 139 |
7 December 2020 | 63 |
14 December 2020 | 334 |
21 December 2020 | 83 |
28 December 2020 | 435 |
4 January 2021 | 1,103 |
11 January 2021 | 1,351 |
18 January 2021 | 2,397 |
25 January 2021 | 3,169 |
1 February 2021 | 3,398 |
8 February 2021 | 3,354 |
15 February 2021 | 2,139 |
The following table shows the number of tests per week in Burnley since mass testing on 13 November 2020.
Week Commencing | Number of Tests |
13 November 2020 | 5 |
16 November 2020 | 5 |
23 November 2020 | 45 |
30 November 2020 | 149 |
7 December 2020 | 67 |
14 December 2020 | 460 |
21 December 2020 | 160 |
28 December 2020 | 157 |
4 January 2021 | 967 |
11 January 2021 | 1,836 |
18 January 2021 | 2,665 |
25 January 2021 | 3,678 |
1 February 2021 | 4,128 |
8 February 2021 | 3,872 |
15 February 2021 | 2,769 |
From 10 December 2020, rapid regular testing for people without symptoms of COVID-19 has been made available across the country with the eligibility of the community testing programme expanded to cover all 314 lower-tier local authorities.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which increases in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations since August have been influenced by (1) the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, (2) the return of schools, colleges and universities in September, and (3) the deteriorating weather conditions and reduced hours of daylight; and what research, if any, they have commissioned into the influence of each of these elements.
Answered by Lord Bethell
While we have not made a specific assessment of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, we would not hesitate to act in response to an increase in infections. We worked closely with businesses to ensure they were COVID-19 secure.
Currently, the impact of COVID-19 on the education sector is being explored by the Government through various studies with the Office for National Statistics, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Public Health England.
We have not made an assessment of the specific influence of weather on the transmission of COVID-19. However, as people to spend more time indoors during the winter which increases the time spent in close proximity to others, the risks of has led to an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the probability of being infected with COVID-19 as a result of contact with items that are delivered to a household compared with other means of infection.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have made no specific assessment.
COVID-19 spreads from person to person through small droplets, aerosols and through direct contact. Surfaces and belongings can also be contaminated with COVID-19 when people with the infection cough or sneeze or touch them. The risk of spread is greatest when people are close to each other, especially in poorly ventilated indoor spaces and when people spend a lot of time together in the same room.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, for each NHS Nightingale Hospital, what was the cost of (1) acquiring, building and converting the space to be used as a hospital, (2) running the hospital since its creation, and (3) keeping the hospital on standby but unused.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Estimates previously provided by NHS England and NHS Improvement to the Department indicated that the set-up cost for the Nightingale hospitals would be approximately £220 million. The following table breaks down the original estimate by each individual Nightingale Hospital:
Site | Set up Costs £’000 |
London | 57,411 |
Birmingham | 66,408 |
Manchester | 23,471 |
Harrogate | 27,314 |
Bristol | 14,209 |
Exeter | 11,163 |
Sunderland | 20,102 |
Total | 220,078 |
Accurate estimates for per site running costs and stand-by costs are not yet available.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are in the process of reviewing all spending incurred for each individual site. The forecast for total costs including set-up, running costs, stand-by costs, and costs of decommissioning across all Nightingales will reach around £532 million covering the tail end of 2020/21 and 2021/22.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many applications for self-isolation payments were received in each of the pilot areas up to the end of the first full week of operation; and how many such applications were approved.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We are working closely with all 314 lower tier and unitary local authorities to collate information on how the Test and Trace Support Payment scheme is progressing and will release information on the number of applications, number of successful applications and amounts paid out in due course.