Health and Social Care Update

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Monday 22nd March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My noble friend has just made a fantastic pitch for my job. He articulated the case for investing in Britain to pharmaceutical and medical devices companies around the world. Which company cannot be looking at Europe, right now, wondering whether Britain is not, by far, the best destination for their investment and research? I completely agree with my noble friend; my head is in my hands when I look at Europe and what is going on there, but my hope is that good sense will return. In the meantime, if anyone wants to invest any money in life sciences, please give me a ring.

[Lord Loomba (CB) [V]]

My Lords, the vaccination milestone of 25 million in 100 days is commendable. However, we must be very careful that we do not undo or undermine our good work thus far. Will the Minister tell us why the Government do not consider it important—imperative, even—to ban all overseas holiday travel this summer, as many countries are now suffering from a third wave of Covid-19 due to new variants becoming apparent, and there is an increased risk of them being transferred to the UK via travellers?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord puts the situation well. I do not agree with every aspect of his assessment, but his concerns are shared by the Government. We keep the whole situation under review, but the bottom line is that we do not know the impact of the variants of concern on the vaccine and vice versa. We keep the situation very closely monitored. The measures in place are entirely proportionate to the threat we face but, should that escalate, we will not hesitate to take the necessary decisions.