Covid-19

Matthew Pennycook Excerpts
Monday 16th March 2020

(4 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

Yes. We are keen to see further production of hand sanitiser. There are not many hand sanitiser production plants in the UK, and I would add that soap is better than hand sanitiser. Nevertheless, it is something we are working on.

Matthew Pennycook Portrait Matthew Pennycook (Greenwich and Woolwich) (Lab)
- Hansard - -

Will the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care please speak to his right hon. Friend the Environment Secretary about what more can be done to guarantee essential food supplies to those who are symptomatic and self-isolating? In the absence of the Health Secretary’s national volunteering scheme, which is not yet in operation—at least, not in my part of south-east London—people were phoning me over the weekend to say that they cannot get essential home deliveries. They have been cancelled and they cannot get them for three weeks. They have no friends or family around and they are too sick to go out.

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

I talk to the Environment Secretary almost daily about this issue. It is obviously incredibly important, and it is important that within communities people help each other to be able to get essential supplies.