Covid-19 Update

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, of course. We do not ever want to have to bring in local lockdowns, but they are an important tool in our armoury to tackle outbreaks where we find them. I much prefer local action to be on individual specific premises or surgeries in a more targeted way.

I also pay tribute to Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, which has done a good job of bringing in local measures when it saw its numbers going up, before the numbers were anywhere near to where Leicester got to. It has done a terrific job. It is vital that we have that local action and that we do not resile from taking it. Having said that, we also recognise the impact that it has, of course, on the people and businesses involved.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

Today Sir Patrick Vallance told the Science and Technology Committee:

“It is clear that the outcome has not been good in the UK; I think we can be absolutely clear about that.”

Although I am delighted that the Prime Minister committed to my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Sir Edward Davey) yesterday that we will have an independent inquiry, we need to learn lessons urgently now ahead of a second wave, not least following the warnings in the Academy of Medical Sciences report earlier this week that suggested that we need to rapidly improve test and trace capacity and our PPE resilience. Will the Secretary of State tell the House what he is doing to make sure that we learn from our mistakes?

[Matt Hancock]

We are learning all the way through about how best to respond to this virus. In fact, changing measures, such as the changes we have made in Leicester today, is a good example of learning from the progress of the virus and learning about how best to tackle it. That is just one of myriad ways in which we are learning and improving all the time.