Covid-19 Update

Debate between Peter Grant and Matt Hancock

Monday 17th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I am glad to say that we will get to my hon. Friend before the end of July, no matter how young he is. I am pretty sure he is an adult in both actuality and attitude—crikey, I am getting myself into more trouble than I anticipated.

I understand my hon. Friend’s broader point, which is a call against local lockdowns, and we have had differences of view on that in the past. It is not where we want to go, though of course we do not rule it out. We have seen our approach work—it worked in south London —and we have this huge testing capacity, which we did not have in the autumn, of hundreds of thousands of tests a day. That capacity is expanding, as the hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western) articulated. We also have millions of lateral flow tests, which are simple and easy to use, and people get the result fast. With surge testing plus the vaccine, we have many more tools in our armoury than we did before.

[Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP) [V]]

I am very grateful in advance to the NHS Fife staff who will give me my second dose of the vaccine exactly 10 weeks to the day after my first one.

The Secretary of State indicated that probably a significant factor in the spread of the highly transmissible new variant is that people who could have been vaccinated by now chose, for whatever reason, not to accept the vaccine. In a number of cases, people have genuine concerns, but a major issue must be that people are declining the vaccine because they believe the lies deliberately and maliciously spread by anti-vax campaigners on social media. What further action do the Government wish to take against those who deliberately spread those lies for no other purpose than to put the lives of others at risk?

[Matt Hancock]

The anti-vaxxers have not had a very good time of it recently, and I am absolutely delighted that take-up is as high as it is. One of the reasons we have been able to take on the anti-vaxxers so effectively is that we have not danced to their tune. Instead, Members right across the House—I am looking around now and I see people in all parts of the House who have played their part in this—have put across the positive, science-based, objective, enlightenment values, if you like, of why the vaccine is the right thing. We as a House, as leaders of our national debate, have done that with one voice, based on the scientific advice. We have done it across the four nations of the United Kingdom with one voice. We have done it with scientists, with clinicians, with religious leaders—with all those who have a strong voice in this debate. Telling the positive story is the vital thing that we can do. Of course there may be those who do otherwise, but that is not for us—it is for us to tell the positive story.

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for playing his part in that by celebrating having his second jab. I am thrilled that he will have, in just a couple of weeks’ time, the maximum protection that one can get. He is helping not only himself and his loved ones, but all of us together to get through this.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Peter Grant and Matt Hancock

Monday 14th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I totally agree: do your bit and get a test.

[Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP) [V]]

The Secretary of State is keen to remind us that we all have an individual responsibility to look after not only our own health but that of one another. Every single unnecessary journey into and out of London and the south-east increases the risk of the virus being transmitted from one part of the United Kingdom to another. The House of Commons Commission set an example today by asking all House of Commons staff not to attend Parliament unless they absolutely have to. What discussions has the Secretary of State had with his colleague the Leader of the House with a view to ensuring that all Members of Parliament can take part in all proceedings by video call, so that none of us has to make unnecessary journeys into London, with the attendant increased risk of either catching the virus or spreading it among other people?

[Matt Hancock]

I am afraid the answer to that question is a matter for the House rather than me as Health Secretary.

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out

Debate between Peter Grant and Matt Hancock

Tuesday 8th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

While the vaccine rolls out, the best way to get any area down through the tiers is to continue to follow the restrictions that are, unfortunately, still absolutely necessary to keep people safe. Having said that, because we have a vaccine, the faster we can roll it out, the sooner we can get to the point where we get rid of the system altogether.

[Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP) [V]]

If I had not been on the call list for this urgent question, I would have been joining friends and colleagues of Leslie, to pay our final respects to a warm-hearted man who sadly lost his life to the virus. Thinking of his family, and what happened to him, brings home to all of us how urgent it is to get a vaccination programme up to speed as quickly as possible. That can happen only if a significant proportion of the population accept the vaccine. My hon. Friend the Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk (Martyn Day) has highlighted the dangers if too many people are taken in by the scare stories circulating on social media, and people can also be put off if they see politicians responding with too much bombast or jingoism to the start of the vaccination programme. May I commend the Secretary of State sincerely for the measured tone that he has adopted today? Will he encourage his ministerial colleagues to be similarly measured in any future pronouncements that they make about this important day in the battle against covid?

[Matt Hancock]

All of us in Government feel encouraged by today’s progress, but we are also determined and resolute to get through this in the safest way possible, and out into the brighter seas beyond, when we can get rid of the restrictions altogether. I agree with the hon. Gentleman about how important it is that we all keep that resolve, not least because of the example that he set out, and I send my commiserations and those of the Government to his constituent. Many of us have suffered loss during this pandemic, and we want it to be over as soon as we can. We must keep going until it is safe to do so.

Coronavirus

Debate between Peter Grant and Matt Hancock

Wednesday 17th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I am delighted to say that, because we made the stockpile in advance, the treatment is already in place, as of yesterday afternoon, in Cornwall—in Treliske Hospital—and right across the country.

[Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP) [V]]

Any reduction at all in social distancing inevitably carries a risk of increasing the spread of the disease, so can the Secretary of State give an assurance that before the Government announce any reduction, he will publish his assessment of the public health, transmission and infection implications of any such change?

[Matt Hancock]

I am legally obliged by the Act that governs this area of policy to undertake such a review before those changes are made.

Coronavirus

Debate between Peter Grant and Matt Hancock

Wednesday 11th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, absolutely. This is a four-nations approach, and the Welsh CMO is in daily contact with the English CMO, the Scottish CMO and the Northern Irish CMO. Indeed, they are also working with the chief medical officer of the Republic of Ireland. The basis of the scientific advice is the same across the four nations. Although, as my hon. Friend reports, there are no cases in north Wales, I am afraid this virus will continue to spread and we should expect there will be a case in north Wales before too long.

[Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)]

I certainly welcome the Government’s determination to keep Parliament open. What a U-turn from the situation not that long ago, when we had to take them to court to keep it open.

Does the Secretary of State accept that it does not have to be all or nothing? A lot of things happen in this place that are not essential to the functioning of our democracy and that, either in fact or certainly in perception, create a high risk of infection. For example, why do we still have functions at which food is left out on uncovered plates on a table at the end of the room without enough sets of tongs, meaning people have little choice but to help themselves using their hands? Why is it that, on the few occasions that we have to divide the House, we cannot use a deferred Division system so that people go through the Lobbies in dribs and drabs over a two or three-hour period, instead of being crammed in, 300 at a time, within a maximum time limit of eight minutes?

Will the Secretary of State and his colleagues in government look at some of the practices in this place, partly to minimise the chances of our carrying this infection back to our constituencies but also to send a message to the rest of the population that we have identified where our own practices fall short of the best standards of hygiene and that we are taking steps to correct it?

[Matt Hancock]

I understand where the hon. Gentleman is coming from. The issues he raises are matters for the House authorities, and I am sure they will have noted his comments.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Peter Grant and Matt Hancock

Tuesday 24th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

17. What steps he is taking to tackle workforce shortages in the NHS.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Matt Hancock)]

We now have more professionally qualified clinical staff working in the NHS: over 41,000 more since 2010, including over 14,000 more doctors and over 13,000 more nurses on our wards.

[Peter Grant]

The majority of NHS staff in Scotland will benefit from a 9% pay rise over the next three years; their equivalents in England will get a much lower increase, and we do not even know if the funding for that is secured. Does the Minister have any concerns that nurses in England may choose to relocate to Scotland where they could be paid almost £1,000 more and work for a health service whose Government actually value its work?

[Matt Hancock]

It is interesting that the hon. Gentleman asks that question, because it is worth looking at some of the facts. Over the five years to 2017 health spending increased by 20% in England but by only 14% in Scotland. As a consequence, people are 30% more likely to wait 18 weeks for treatment in Scotland than in England, and the increase in the number of nurses and doctors in England has been higher than in Scotland. Perhaps the SNP should look at how we have been performing in the NHS in England and learn from that.

BBC Pay

Debate between Peter Grant and Matt Hancock

Tuesday 9th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

We have brought in stronger laws to ensure that there is transparency, not only at the BBC through the royal charter but statutorily for all large organisations. We have taken action in this area because it is very important to get to the bottom of it.

[Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)]

Gender pay discrimination is partly a symptom of a much wider problem of sexist attitudes that prevail in too many large organisations. May I remind the Secretary of State that it is less than 24 hours since a colleague of his at the Dispatch Box defended the appointment of Toby Young as universities regulator for England, and less than two hours since another colleague at the Dispatch Box defended the offer of a state visit to Donald Trump? While I would agree with a lot of the Secretary of State’s criticisms of the BBC, will he not accept that if the Government are going to throw stones at the BBC, they should get out of the glass house they are in and stop rewarding such blatant and horrific examples of sexist behaviour elsewhere?

[Matt Hancock]

As I say, tackling the sort of unequal pay that we have seen at the BBC is very important. That is why we brought in the measures that we did, which I took through Parliament as the Bill Minister and which we are very proud to have brought in.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Peter Grant and Matt Hancock

Wednesday 27th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)]

9. What plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to amend the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Matthew Hancock)]

The Government are committed to transparency and freedom of information. The independent commission on freedom of information was established to review the working of the Act and we will consider the report when it is received.

[Peter Grant]

There are any number of instances that we can all point to where the publication of information that the authorities would rather have kept hidden has led to significant public benefits. The expenses affair in this place was one example. I do not know of a single case where the release of information through the Freedom of Information Act has caused any significant public damage. Does the Minister agree that any change to the Act should be designed to make it easier, rather than harder, for citizens to find out what the Government are doing?