Coronavirus: Disease Control

(asked on 22nd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had, and with whom, about the lack of recommendations in the report by Public Health England’s Disparities in the risk and outcomes of COVID-19, published in June, on how to tackle racial and health inequalities that have been amplified by COVID-19.


Answered by
Baroness Berridge Portrait
Baroness Berridge
This question was answered on 7th July 2020

The Government commissioned Public Health England to conduct an epidemiological review to analyse how different factors can impact on people’s health outcomes from COVID-19. This was published on 2 June 2020. This review is an important piece of work which sets out firm conclusions, and the Minister for Equalities is working with the Race Disparity Unit, Department for Health and Social Care and other departments to take forward work to build on PHE’s review, and work across government to take appropriate steps to mitigate disparities identified.

In parallel, Professor Kevin Fenton separately engaged with a significant number of individuals and organisations within the BAME community to hear their views, concerns and ideas about the impact of COVID-19 on their communities. This separate report, ‘COVID-19:understanding the impact on BAME communities’, was published on GOV.UK on 16 June 2020.

The recommendations from the second report will also be taken forward through the terms of reference for Government’s next steps to address the disparities identified in the PHE report, announced on 4 June.

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