Public Health
Munira Wilson Excerpts(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
It is a strange place to be when I find myself in agreement today with so many Members on the Government side of the Chamber.
I feel it is important for me, on behalf of my Liberal Democrat colleagues, to emphasise two points that have been raised already. They are on the importance of evidence-based policy making, and on promoting and protecting the wellbeing and mental health of children.
Like many others, I have struggled to find the evidence for the rule of six. It has been reported that SAGE has recommended it, and from the start of the pandemic the Liberal Democrats have always said that we will follow the science. However, in order to build trust and to secure buy-in and compliance from the public, it is important to show your workings, so, as the hon. Member for Altrincham and Sale West (Sir Graham Brady) said, we need to know about the trade-offs involved. Why six? Why not seven? Why not eight? No SAGE minutes on the covid-19 response have been published since 30 September—at least I could not find any—and the published minutes do not include discussion about the rule of six, which was introduced on 9 September. Was there a subsequent meeting of SAGE on covid-19 measures between 3 and 9 September? Will the Government publish the minutes and show the workings behind the rule of six? We have yet to see that clear, robust scientific evidence in support of this decision, particularly around the decision to include children under 12.
As we have heard, in Wales and Scotland children have been exempted. The Minister has said previously that children have been included in England for simplicity’s sake. To reiterate a point that was made earlier, does she think that people in Scotland and Wales are able to follow a slightly more complex message, as opposed to people in England, who need a simpler message about children?
Although the pandemic has had a terrible impact on the entire population, children and young people have too often been overlooked, as we saw in the decision to reopen pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops before schools. Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner, has said:
“Children have fewer health risks from Covid-19 and yet they have suffered disproportionately from the nation’s efforts to contain the virus.”
I appreciate that we are learning all the time and that there is limited research available, but recent research in the Netherlands from the RIVM—the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment—has found:
“The novel coronavirus is mainly spread between adults and from adult family members to children. The spread of COVID-19 among children or from children to adults is less common. In general, the younger the children, the less significant the role they play in spreading the virus.”
If children were such a major part of the problem in terms of transmission, we would be hearing about far greater numbers of bubbles being sent home from school. I could not find data on that point, but I know from my constituency that very few bubbles have been sent home. Indeed, last week, in primary schools across the Richmond borough, there was a 93% attendance rate among primary school children. That suggests to me that children under 12 are playing a very minor role in transmission.
As has been said, the rule of six discriminates against large families and households, where a family of six or more cannot meet a relative or friend but a family of three, four or five can. That impacts on the grandparents more than the parents, as in larger families they are unable to see their grandchildren. We should also consider the fact that larger families with four or more children may fear being out in public, in case people think they are being rule-breakers.
In terms of children’s mental health and well-being, the importance to children of being able to socialise, interact and play outside the school setting with other children is crucial. A Barnardo’s poll of 4,000 children aged eight to 24 found that 68% said that not seeing their friends was the most difficult thing about the pandemic.
I appreciate that the Government have conceded the point on informal childcare, by exempting informal childcare from the rule of six, and I welcome that move, but I see no reason why two families with two children under 12 should not meet up in a playground. I declare an interest, as I have a two-year-old and a six-year old.
I very much hope that the Minister will give us a better explanation than “simplicity” in her concluding remarks. If it is about clarity of message, the constant chopping and changing of the guidance, the hugely complex rules in different parts of the country, and politicians and advisers wilfully breaking them, are the reasons why messages have been undermined. We should not make up for poor communication and those errors on the backs of our children.
Frankly, we would not have to consider blunt measures at all if we had a functioning system to test, trace and isolate every case of the virus to keep people safe. Furthermore, we should backward-trace every outbreak to ensure that super-spreader events are cracked down on so that we can take a much more tailored and targeted approach until we have a vaccine.
Covid-19 Update
Munira Wilson Excerpts(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Matt Hancock
I concur with my right hon. Friend on the importance of personal responsibility. We all have a responsibility in this. I have not heard of responsibility agreements with students, but that is a very sensible approach. I spoke to Andy Street this morning, and he made clear to me the need for national and local government to work together. That is working very effectively across the west midlands and across party lines, exactly as my right hon. Friend says. We must continue to do that as we monitor the developments and the data and do all we can to keep this virus under control.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
Some local authorities are reporting that up to 500 unexpected positive cases have been downloaded to their system. Some are two weeks old and have had no contact at all from the national system. Directors of public health are angry and frustrated about the lack of joined-up working and the fact that the national system continues to break, despite the promises of both the Secretary of State and Baroness Harding to go for a more locally led approach. When will he start to work better with local authorities and have a more joined-up approach, harnessing their expertise?
Covid-19
Munira Wilson Excerpts(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Matt Hancock
Yes, absolutely. I am aware of these sorts of scams, and we have a programme of action to take against them. It is an outrage that people should try to take advantage of a global pandemic in this illegal way.
I want to update the House on the changes that we have brought into force on requiring and mandating self -isolation. From today, we have introduced a £500 support payment for those self-isolating on low incomes. On top of that, I can tell the House that we are providing £15 million so that local authorities can make discretionary payments to people who do not meet the criteria of the scheme but may also face financial hardship if they have to self-isolate and cannot work. We know that self-isolation works, and we know that the vast majority of people want to do the right thing, so we will enhance support for those who do and come down hard on those who flout the rules.
Our second line of defence is testing and contact tracing. The 20 millionth test today means that we will have processed more tests than Italy and Spain combined. We are expanding our testing capacity all the time, on track to 500,000 a day by the end of the month. Of course, testing only provides the information. What matters is that people act on it, so we have built a veritable army of contact tracers at enormous scale, and they are complemented by the app. It is a cross-party app. I am grateful for the huge support that it has received, and I urge everybody, including every single Member of this House, to join the 12.4 million.
We have so much more information about the virus than we had in the first peak, which means that we can take a more targeted and localised approach. Over the past few months, local restrictions have allowed us to home in on areas where cases are high and rising and put targeted measures in place.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
The Secretary of State talks about testing being so important in providing data. Does he therefore regret that in recent weeks, we have seen 40% of testing capacity taken out of London? We are now seeing hospitalisations rising, with talk about further restrictions in London, but we cannot base it on reliable testing data because there has not been enough testing done—people in my constituency and across London are still struggling to access tests. Does he agree that that was the wrong move to make?
Matt Hancock
We ensure that testing is prioritised in the areas with the greatest prevalence, and we look at not only the number of positive cases but the surveys and the positivity rate. Those all inform the needs. I understand why the hon. Lady rightly fights for more testing in her constituency, but we have to ensure that testing is used in the places where it is most needed. We know more about this because we now have mass testing, with capacity for over a quarter of a million tests a day, which means that we can take a more targeted and local approach.
Unfortunately, as case rates have gone up, we have needed to introduce more local measures. On Friday, we introduced new restrictions on household mixing for Wigan, Stockport, Blackpool and Leeds, and today, I must announce further measures for the parts of the north-east where we introduced local action a fortnight ago. Unfortunately, the number of cases continues to rise sharply. The incidence rate across the area is now over 100 cases per 100,000. We know that a large number of these infections are taking place in indoor settings outside the home, so, at the request of the local councils, with which we have been working closely, we will introduce legal restrictions on indoor mixing between households in any setting. We do not take these steps lightly, but we must take them now, because we know that swift action is more likely to bring the virus under control. The quicker we can get this virus under control, the quicker we can restore the freedoms that we all enjoy in the north-east and across the country.
All the time that we have been fighting to suppress the virus, so too we have fought to protect people—through the furlough scheme, the bounce back loans and funding for social care, the charities, the arts, as well as unprecedented support for the NHS, so that we could protect it through the peak and now work through the backlog that the peak inevitably caused. Through the huge challenges, we secured the supply lines for vital PPE, and hence we can now launch our PPE winter plan. I would like to pay tribute to Lord Deighton, his team and all the businesses that are stepping up, because their work has put us in such strong stead to protect those who are performing heroics on the frontline.
Finally, the best way to protect us in the long term, for our lives and our livelihoods, is a vaccine. Work progresses as fast as is safely possible. On Friday, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation published its interim guidance on how we propose to prioritise access to a vaccine as soon as one becomes available. A huge planning effort is under way, led by the NHS and with the support of the armed forces, to ensure that we are ready for a roll-out as soon as is feasibly possible. Building on years of experience of the annual flu vaccine roll-out, the national effort to come brings hope to us all.
All the way through this pandemic, I have welcomed debate and scrutiny in this House. On Wednesday, we will debate and vote on extending the vital measures in the Coronavirus Act 2020, which provides powers that are critical to the control of the virus. I urge all colleagues to work together to ensure that we come through this in the best possible way, because ultimately, wherever in this Chamber we may sit, we are all on the same side, steadfast in our determination to defeat this deadly virus.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
On 23 January, a full two months before the national lockdown, the Secretary of State came to the House to give his very first statement about a virus that none of us had heard of. He said,
“while there is an increased likelihood that cases may arise in this country, we are well prepared and well equipped to deal with them. The UK is one of the first countries to have developed a world-leading test for the new coronavirus.”—[Official Report, 23 January 2020; Vol. 670, c. 432.]
Reading that eight months later, following the loss of almost 42,000 lives in the UK, unprecedented restrictions on our freedoms, and the biggest recession since records began, we know how tragically wrong that turned out to be.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I fully accept that no Government could have predicted the covid-19 pandemic and been fully prepared for what was to unfold. However, we did have some warning from China and our °European neighbours, and pandemics have long been at the top of the country’s risk register. The Government had responsibility to think the unthinkable, and plan and prepare accordingly. Sadly, I do not feel that they did.
That first statement was the start of a pattern that we have seen throughout the crisis, and it exposed the deep chasm between rhetoric and reality. Back then, the Secretary of State boasted that we were the among the first countries to develop a test for the virus, yet levels of testing were initially far too low, and too slow to ramp up. Six months on, yes, capacity is up. I accept that and congratulate the Government on that.
The Secretary of State bats away all criticism, with claims that we have the highest testing rates in Europe, but that means nothing if someone cannot access a test when they need one. Just this morning I heard from a local mum whose 13-year-old son is running a 39° temperature. She tried all night to book a test, and when she finally got offered one, it was on the Isle of Wight. She lives in Teddington in south-west London. That tale is replicated across the country, and particularly in London, because 40% of our testing capacity was taken away in recent weeks. Other measures suggest that cases are now rising, but we do not have hard testing data to inform the decisions we need to bring the situation back under control.
Centralised tracing has been poor, with tracing rates centrally barely hitting 60%. Local tracers have had much higher tracing rates of well in excess of 90%. Despite all the advice, the Government insisted on a centralised top-down approach, even though local authorities the length and breadth of the country have the expertise and local knowledge to trace effectively. The long-promised app has been beset by numerous problems. Today the Secretary of State hailed the great success of the app’s launch, but thousands could not register their test results, and older Apple iPhones and newer Huawei phones are unable to download it. Six months on, the so-called world-beating test and trace system is an utter shambles.
The other chasm between rhetoric and reality has been social care—an issue I have been raising in the House since March. We hear time and again that the Government have put a protective ring around care homes, yet the numbers of deaths speak for themselves, and it was clear that social care was an afterthought. Stories from care workers tending to residents who have contracted the virus and comforting them in their dying days back up this picture. I wrote to the Minister for Care in mid-August but I have yet to receive a reply. I am delighted that Conservative Members are getting such access and great responses from Ministers day in, day out, but Opposition Members write letter after letter and table question after question, and fail to get replies or get replies months later.
I highlighted testing challenges locally, but these issues are relevant across the country. Care homes are now able to access tests, but turnaround times are too slow. Learning disability homes have finally now got access to testing, but it is still patchy and turnaround times are too slow, and we have yet to see a full roll-out of testing in supported living. A new problem that has emerged is that community nurses going into homes to give residents a flu jab are not being tested, and guidance on this issue has been delayed.
We have heard from Members on both sides of this House about the tragic situation of people in care homes whose mental health is suffering because they cannot have visits from a family member. We must—must—get regular testing for a nominated family member. I have heard that from my constituents who cannot access their family members and can see these people withering away before their very eyes. If we really have the largest testing system imaginable and we have put a protective ring around our most vulnerable, Ministers must be able to find a solution to this problem, and we need one urgently.
Covid-19 Update
Munira Wilson Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
There is an important balance between the measures we need to take across the country as a whole, and the further and stronger measures in local areas. My right hon. Friend will have seen, particularly in the past week, that we have expanded some of those local interventions to cover bigger geographies, but he is right to say that there are some parts of the country where, thankfully, the number of cases is still very low. So the balance between what we do nationally and what we do locally is as important as the balance in terms of what we do overall.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
I am sure the Secretary of State will agree that one of the greatest tragedies of the first wave of this dreadful virus was the loss of life in and the impact on our social care sector, and we must learn the lessons from that as we head into a second wave. While he has emphasised in the media and in his statement the prioritisation of testing in care homes, could he explain why a number of care homes are still reporting a two-week delay in receiving test results? Will he clarify whether the prioritisation also includes staff providing care in people’s homes?
Matt Hancock
Care home testing is incredibly important. We have brought down some of the response times, and I am glad to report to the House that, since last week, when we debated the very sharp rise in demand, including among asymptomatic people, that demand has come down somewhat, and the pressures are a little lower on the testing system as a whole. That does not mean that we do not want to increase capacity further—of course we do. It is very important that we have tests available for all vulnerable people, whether they live at home or in a care home.
Covid-19 Update
Munira Wilson Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)
I do want to be able to get everybody in, so I urge colleagues to make the questions fairly brief and, correspondingly, the answers.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
While there are some welcome announcements in this statement, I am utterly astounded that there is only one reference to coronavirus testing when we see cases rising across the country, a system in meltdown, people unable to access tests, and turnaround times down. If the Secretary of State does not believe us, perhaps he should read his own constituency inbox. Will he finally admit that the system is broken and we risk losing control of the virus? Will he issue a public apology?
Matt Hancock
The hon. Lady, earlier in the week in a statement that was all about testing, raised an issue that turned out to be wrong. I think it is really important and incumbent on all of us as public servants to explain things fairly, straight and properly to our constituents, and that is what she should start to do.
Matt Hancock
The test and trace system works in a combination of the national and the local. If we took away the national, we would not have the record testing capacity, but if we took away the local, we would not have the local knowledge and the boots on the ground to solve problems and to find people who need to self-isolate. It is the combination of the two that works. I urge the right hon. Gentleman to work with his local council and with the national teams to do everything we can to get the virus under control in his area.
Munira Wilson
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. During the Secretary of State’s response to me earlier in the statement, he said that I was wrong to raise the issue earlier this week of my constituents using Scottish postcodes to access tests and that I was not being fair or straight with my constituents. I would like to offer the Secretary of State the evidence that I have. I have emails from Sunday, from Monday and, indeed, from this morning of constituents using Aberdeen and Dundee postcodes to access tests at the Twickenham site. Will the Secretary of State withdraw his comment, or is he suggesting that my constituents are lying to me?
Matt Hancock
Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am very happy to look at any evidence that is presented, but I did look into this issue when it was raised on Tuesday. If someone does as the hon. Lady suggests and then goes to a testing site that is not the one they booked into, an alarm comes up on the screen to say that the person is booked into the wrong testing centre, so there is a process in place to tackle the problem that she has mentioned. I am very happy to look at any evidence to solve any problems in the system, but I have looked into this one, and I am assured that that is the case.
Axial Spondyloarthritis
Munira Wilson Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Tom Randall (Gedling) (Con)
I am grateful for the opportunity to hold this Adjournment debate. I have been a Member of this House for nine months. One of the great privileges of being a Member of Parliament is the opportunity to sit in this Chamber. The more astute observers might have noticed that I occasionally sit slightly awkwardly on these Benches. I admit that, sometimes, I slouch. One of my waggish Twitter correspondents recently juxtaposed a photograph of me and a photograph of my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House reclining on the Treasury Bench, with the caption,
“great to see Gedling MP getting comfy in parliament and following in the footsteps of his fellow parliamentarian”.
I admire the Leader of the House very much—there is much to admire about him—but on this, alas, I do not seek to emulate him. Rather, my awkward posture arises from the condition I have: ankylosing spondylitis.
Ankylosing spondylitis is one of three sub-types of a type of inflammatory arthritis called axial spondyloarthritis. Axial spondyloarthritis is a chronic inflammation of the spine and joints. It is a painful and progressive long-term condition for which there is no cure. It is unlike conditions such as osteoarthritis, which is often associated with older people and the wear and tear that comes with ageing.
Axial spondyloarthritis, often abbreviated to axial SpA or AS, tends to present in the late teens or early 20s, with the average onset being just 24. In my own case, I first presented with symptoms at 16. As well as the stiffness and pain that one might expect from an arthritic condition, axial SpA is also associated with a range of complications and comorbidities, including uveitis and psoriasis. But it is perhaps the less visible complications of AS that can be the most debilitating. Many suffer from severe fatigue, as well as flare-ups and stiffness.
The condition presents itself in a period when most people are at a crucial stage of their lives, looking to build careers, start families and forge social relationships. I well remember my early 20s, when I was starting out in my first job after university, before I was prescribed the treatments that I am on now. When I got home after doing an eight-hour day in the office—something that most people would take in their stride—I crashed out on the bed, completely exhausted from a normal day at work.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
I congratulate the hon. Member on securing this important debate. My husband also suffers from ankylosing spondylitis. Like the hon. Member, he started getting symptoms when he was about 20, and it took him about 10 years to get diagnosed. He was exhausted and struggling to work, and there were days when I had to help him put his socks on because he could not bend over. Does the hon. Member agree that the shocking delays in getting a diagnosis have a massive impact on quality of life, as do the difficulties that people have in accessing the right treatment? We need to improve awareness, particularly of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on the treatments available.
The Minister for Care (Helen Whately)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling (Tom Randall) on securing this debate and on bringing the House’s attention to the need for earlier diagnosis of axial spondyloarthritis. May I say how important it is that he has brought his personal experience to the debate? The House should appreciate the courage he has shown to speak up about his own condition—something that cannot be easy, but that is an example. I feel strongly that all of us bring our own experiences to our work. That is one of the reasons it is important to have a diverse House of Commons. He has brought his own extremely painful experience to bear. I am confident that simply by doing so, he will make a difference for many others who suffer from this painful condition or who may do so in the future.
My hon. Friend rightly highlighted how critical it is for those with axial spondyloarthritis to get the right diagnosis and get it quickly, and to have their symptoms taken seriously by all healthcare professionals. It is clearly incredibly important to ensure that people can access the right sort of care at the right time, as it can prevent the potentially devastating impact of the condition on quality of life. I very much appreciate from his account and from others I have read how the condition affects people and their loved ones. We must do all we can to reduce the impact on people’s physical and mental health, and I want to do so.
As my hon. Friend said, axial spondyloarthritis, which may also be referred to as axial SpA or AS, is a form of inflammatory arthritis that most commonly affects the spine. It is a painful long-term condition that currently has no cure. As well as affecting the joints in the spine, it can affect the chest, the pelvis and other joints, ligaments and tendons. Unfortunately, AS is often misdiagnosed as mechanical lower back pain or diagnosed late, leading to delays in access to effective treatments. It is estimated that approximately 220,000 people, or one in 200 of the adult population in the UK, have the condition.
As my hon. Friend said, the average age of onset is relatively young at 24, with patients having to wait on average eight and a half years before diagnosis at an average age of 32. That is clearly far too long to be waiting for a diagnosis, because left untreated the condition can lead to irreversible spinal fusion, causing severe disability. That makes a rapid referral to specialist care for those with any signs or symptoms crucial to treatment and to preventing those kinds of outcomes.
I recognise that AS can have a devastating effect on the quality of life of people who sadly go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for far too long. This must get better. It is clear to me that early diagnosis and treatment are the key to preventing the development of other serious conditions further down the line and to improving the quality of life of those who suffer from this condition.
We recognise that one major reason for the delays in diagnosing axial SpA is a lack of awareness of the condition among healthcare professionals and the general public. That can take many forms: a lack of awareness of different types of arthritis; a lack of knowledge about the differences between inflammatory and mechanical back pain; or misunderstanding that AS affects similar numbers of men and women. Educational interventions to improve the level of awareness should lead to improvements in earlier diagnosis, and a range of materials are being produced to this effect. For example, an online training module on AS for GPs has been produced by the Royal College of General Practitioners.
In June this year, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence published its managing spondyloarthritis in adults pathway, which has been well received by patient groups and charities. This set out recommendations for healthcare professionals in diagnosing and managing axial SpA in adults. It describes how to improve the quality of care being provided or commissioned in this area, both through guidance and via an associated quality standard. I completely agree that we would expect providers and commissioners to be following the guidance and recommendations in this area so that we can improve the overall rate of earlier diagnosis. It is not only important that we have this guidance but that it will be within the pathway that the APPG and my hon. Friend have argued should be put into place in practice.
Munira Wilson
While I welcome the guidance and the pathway, what does the Minister suggest can be done to tackle the clinical conservatism that we quite often find among specialists even once the diagnosis is made? In my husband’s case, the rheumatologists said to him, “You are far too young for us to move you on to the more advanced treatments”, so he was living with huge amounts of pain on just very mild painkillers and steroids. It was only because we happen to live in London that we got him re-referred to a world-leading specialist in the field who then put him on anti-TNFs. He is now able to be the primary carer of our two very young, active children, which he could not do otherwise. Not everybody has that luxury, especially if they live in a rural area.
Helen Whately
The hon. Member makes a really important point, again drawing from her own personal and family experience, about the importance of awareness of what is the best treatment for this condition. If she would like me to do so, I am happy to take away her specific point and look into how we can address the need for improvement in the treatment, as well as her general point about needing a better pathway. I am also happy to meet my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling, as he requested, to talk further about how we can make more progress on the right treatment for this condition, and awareness of it.
Coming back to the overall points about what we can do to improve the treatment, the NHS long-term plan set out our plans to improve healthcare for people with long-term conditions, including axial SpA. That includes making sure that everybody should have direct access to a musculoskeletal first-contact practitioner, expanding the number of physiotherapists working in primary care networks, and improving diagnosis by enabling people to access these services without first needing a GP referral—in fact, going directly to speak to somebody with particular expertise in the area of musculoskeletal conditions. The hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) intervened to make a point about the demands on physiotherapists. I have asked to be kept updated on progress on delivering the expansion of the number of physiotherapists in primary care networks and, more broadly, on the implementation of the NHS long-term plan. We do indeed need to make sure that we have sufficient physiotherapists to be able to deliver on that. I anticipate that that should have a positive impact on the problem of delayed diagnosis for a range of conditions, and particularly for this specific condition.
While better education and awareness of AS should improve the situation, there is clearly more that we can and must do to understand the condition. The National Institute for Health Research is funding a wide range of studies on musculoskeletal conditions, including AS specifically. That research covers both earlier diagnosis and treatment options for the condition, so that we continue to build our understanding of good practice and improve both the treatment and the outcomes for those who have the condition.
In conclusion, I want to pick up on my hon. Friend’s point about the importance of awareness and the call for an awareness campaign by the APPG, and I should of course commend the National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society for its work in this area. My hon. Friend mentioned that there is clearly a huge amount of public health messaging going out at the moment, but I hope the time will come when we can gain more airtime for this particular condition. However, the fact that we are having this conversation in the Chamber is in itself a step towards raising awareness of the condition, and so, too, is all the work that is going on; that is important as well, because along with having the policy and the pathway, we must make sure it is put into practice.
I congratulate my hon. Friend again on bringing this subject to the attention of the House and on the work he is doing and the effect that this will have. I truly want to support him and to do our best for all who suffer from this condition and may suffer from it in future, to ensure that we achieve much earlier diagnosis and treatment and better outcomes for those with the condition.
Coronavirus
Munira Wilson Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
Of course, I do worry first and foremost about the health of the nation, and we need a rule that is super-simple. Children do transmit this virus, and we have made the decision to keep the rule as simple as possible considering all those risks. I understand where my hon. Friend is coming from. We take a different approach in different areas according to the extent of cases locally, and that is an important tool in our armoury.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
Like many other Members, I have been inundated with emails from doctors, teachers and parents unable to access the tests that they desperately need. Several of them have been advised that if they put an Aberdeen postcode into the system, they can get a test in Twickenham—and they have succeeded. How on earth is a world-beating test and trace system functioning like this, and what is the Secretary of State doing to fix it? In the meantime, does he recommend that I tell constituents who desperately need a test to game the system in that way?
Matt Hancock
No; in fact, it is incumbent on us all to take a responsible approach and tell our constituents that tests are available in large numbers, that the average distance travelled is 5.8 miles and that people should take this seriously and not game the system.
Covid-19 Update
Munira Wilson Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
Yes, I absolutely agree, and I also agree with my hon. Friend’s description of the situation, which is that we have built this system at great pace. I did not know about the example in Telford, although I had heard that many people had been directed there in this instance. In fact, only on Tuesday evening, after being in the House, I had a meeting about the problem of people being directed to travel too far. We are absolutely looking at the broader problem, and I will take away that particular example and find out exactly what glitch caused it.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
I note from the statement that organised sport is exempt from the new regulations. We all want life to return to normal, including sport, which is an important sector of our economy, but, as things stand, next month 20,000 spectators are scheduled to travel to Twickenham. Can the Secretary of State help me to understand the logic whereby the scientific advice suggests that a family of six cannot meet a relative in their garden, yet the Prime Minister is saying that the guidance on sporting events, which means thousands of spectators will be travelling around the country to stadiums, drinking and socialising, is still only under review?
Matt Hancock
The hon. Lady has answered her own question, because the Prime Minister did announce that that programme is under review, and the results of that will be announced shortly.
Covid-19 Update
Munira Wilson Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
Yes, absolutely. My hon. Friend makes an incredibly important point with which I agree wholeheartedly. The backlog that was caused by the inevitable and, as he put it, unavoidable delays to treatment in the peak has more or less halved, which is good news. So there is progress. We have changed the NHS to be split, essentially, between sites that are covid-secure and sites where there may be covid. That will help us to protect cancer treatment, as we go forward, exactly as my hon. Friend asks.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
On 16 July, I flagged with the Secretary of State that the Academy of Medical Sciences was warning that we needed a rapid expansion of test and trace to be prepared for a second wave. He told me they were learning lessons as we go. Today, pupils and parents in my constituency are being sent as far afield as Aberdeen and Newquay for tests. They cannot get home tests. Children are back at school. Forget world-beating—what is he doing to ensure that we have a functioning test-and-trace system in place right now?
Oral Answers to Questions
Munira Wilson Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
Yes, I will. I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend that so-called conversion therapy is abhorrent. I praise her for the campaign she is running on this. I agree with the Prime Minister who, from this Dispatch Box, committed to ensuring that that practice is stamped out. We have a review under way. I will make sure that I work very closely with my hon. Friend, who has done so much to make the case.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
Matt Hancock
Yes, we have been rolling out the asymptomatic testing for residents and staff in care homes. As the hon. Member will know from the statement I gave to the House in July, we had a problem with the supply of tests from one particular company, which caused some difficulties. We have spent the summer catching up on that programme.