Oral Answers to Questions

Meg Hillier Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Jo Churchill]

We know that health inequalities are stubborn, persistent and difficult to change—we knew that before covid-19, but that is not a reason to accept them. We fully agree that more needs to be done to reduce the disparity in health outcomes within the BAME community and the broader community. That is why we will ensure that the work on health inequalities goes on at pace.

[Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)]

What steps his Department is taking to support local authority covid-19 test and trace services.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the NHS test and trace service.

--- Later in debate ---

[Meg Hillier]

The Secretary of State will recall that I wrote to him a little while ago suggesting that an approach that was a bit more Shoreditch and a little less Whitehall might be effective. Given the lack of success of the app, maybe he could have taken that advice. I am pleased that Hackney Council is one of the five areas that is piloting this, working with GPs and other health professionals in public health and so on, but the critical thing is that we are not getting the data locally that we need to do the proper tracing of those who were close to someone who has tested positive. When will that data arrive? Without it, it is like working with one arm tied behind our back.

[Matt Hancock]

The amount of data flowing to local authorities has increased substantially over the past few weeks since the start of the operation at the end of last month, and there will be more coming very, very soon.