Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place) (England) Regulations 2020

Lord Hayward Excerpts

Friday 18th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hayward (Con)]

My Lords, I start by giving credit to Government Ministers who, despite all the difficulties, have faced an enormous, moving task throughout the last months. It is not something we know clearly about, and, as has just been indicated, the science changes. I have sympathy with what the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, said, but equally, in these difficult circumstances the guidance is changing on a daily basis from one part of the world to another, as has just been indicated. We are discovering information about this pandemic from wherever it may happen to come, largely from university and medical centre research from all over the world.

As the Minister said, the regulations impose a duty—all regulations do—but they also send a message. The problem, as the noble Earl just identified, is that some are avoiding that duty and others are not receiving the message. I was interested in my noble friend the Minister’s use of the figure that 96% have used masks in shops. We can all phrase questions to get the answer we want. I suggest that the people doing those surveys should go to any supermarket or get on any bus in London, because the figures are nowhere near that. A businessman texted me this morning to say that it was a 30% failure rate. I would say that it is probably slightly less than that, but when I was coming in this morning the only person on the upper deck of the bus with me was not wearing a mask.

That comes the question of where the duty lies to apply the regulations. At the moment, the police have that duty. One of my neighbours is a night-time bus driver. He says that he would not dare attempt to apply it for fear of being beaten up, which one can well understand in inner-city London. However, he does not have the backing of the law in relation to the application. I believe that large shops and bus operators should be told that they must implement it and that they have the responsibility themselves. We cannot just ask the police to impose the regulations. I therefore ask for strict implementation in some places.

On the other hand, I note that my noble friend Lord Robathan is due to speak. His wife is the leader of Westminster Council. I was in Soho the other day, which is absolutely moving and alive. I suggest that some of those who operate the regulations in this House should visit to see how they are applied in Westminster. Having said that, I make one concluding observation: another part of the regulations would be that, in stress areas, people should be required to wear masks when walking on the streets alongside restaurants.