Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2021 to Question 21143 on travel: coronavirus, for what reason Sardinia is not regarded as a separate territory and destination from Italy.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) currently reviews over 250 countries and territories to inform Ministers upon current international travel policies. The JBC does not routinely separate all islands from their mainland territories. However, various islands/island groups are closely monitored regarding wider public health issues within regions including virus prevalence.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Minister for Women and Equalities to help ensure an equitable economic recovery for women from the Covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Chancellor speaks to his Cabinet colleagues frequently.
Women have benefitted from an unprecedented package of support introduced since March 2020 to help businesses and individuals.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) continues through to the end of September, with employees receiving 80% of their salary for hours not worked, up to £2,500 per month. Across the UK, where it was possible to link the data, 1.72 million women were on furlough at 30 April 2021 compared with 1.67 million men.
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) also continues until September 2021. The fifth and final grant will include a turnover test in order to ensure that the most generous support - a grant worth 80% of three months’ average trading profits, up to £7,500 - is targeted at those who need it the most. As of 6 June 2021, the scheme has received over 2.6 million claims from self-employed women across the four rounds of grant.
To continue to support people on low incomes during the pandemic, the Government has extended the temporary £20 per week uplift to the Universal Credit (UC) standard allowance to the end of September, with similar support for eligible Working Tax Credit (WTC) claimants. The majority of Universal Credit claimants are women: 53% in April 2021.
The increase to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit in cash terms in 2021-22 has also been maintained, an increase which was worth an extra £600 on average in 2020-21 for over 1.5 million households.
As there is a higher proportion of single women (52%) claiming housing support in the private rental sector with a shortfall than single men (18%) or couples (30%), increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile of rates in the market, is more likely to benefit single women than single men.
While the long-term impacts of the pandemic on the labour market are still emerging, there has been a larger fall in employment among men compared to women so far. Since December-February quarter 2020, the female employment rate has fallen by 0.5 percentage points, while the male employment rate has fallen by 2.4 percentage points. This is in contrast to other G7 countries: between Q4 2019 and Q4 2020 Canada has seen a larger fall in the female employment rate, and France, Italy, Japan and the US have seen relatively similar falls for both men and women (within 0.2 percentage points).
The gender pay gap is also at its lowest level since records began, falling to a record low of 15.5% in April 2020, from 17.4% last year. For full-time employees, the gap is also at a record low of 7.4% in April 2020, down from 9.0% in April 2019. The Office for National Statistics found that evidence from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS) suggests that coronavirus factors did not have a notable impact on the gender pay gap in 2020.
Asked by: Lord Campbell-Savours (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there is any evidence of variants of COVID-19 which can be traced to specific countries of origin; and if so, what proportion of reported COVID-19 cases have been linked to the variant of COVID-19 from Italy.
Answered by Lord Bethell
It is common for viruses to mutate - over 4,000 variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been identified worldwide. The United Kingdom has a world leading surveillance system that supports the detection, analysis and identification of any variants circulating globally which may be of concern.
COVID-19 Genomics UK will continue to lead on monitoring virus samples for new variants. The Department and Public Health England will continue to study the virus closely to understand how it is behaving, where it might have originated from and the spread of the new variant across the UK.
Asked by: Lord Campbell-Savours (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the article by Giovanni Apolone et al Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the prepandemic period in Italy, published in the Tumori Journal on 11 November.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Public Health England monitors the evidence on COVID-19, including articles such as that by Apolone et al.
This published study uses in-house serological methods which require considerable assurance on their specificity and sensitivity, which is not provided in the paper. Therefore, there are several reservations about the laboratory methods used, which provide uncertainty about the conclusions drawn.
Whilst indicative of the possibility, this article is not definitive evidence of the presence of COVID-19 virus in Italy in December and additional supportive evidence is required to achieve high confidence in this assertion.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Italian counterpart on that Government's response to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Foreign Secretary last discussed the Italian Government's response to the covid-19 pandemic with Foreign Minister Di Maio on 25 June. Our embassy in Rome is in constant contact with Italian officials in order to monitor the situation and seek opportunities to share best practices, and senior UK scientific advisers and health officials have also been in regular contact with their Italian counterparts since the start of the pandemic. On 1-3 October, a delegation of British ministers including Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Alok Sharma, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Kemi Badenoch MP and FCDO Minister for the Pacific and Environment Lord Goldsmith, met with their counterparts in Italy at the Pontignano Conference. They discussed our respective governments' response to the pandemic and how the UK and Italy can continue to work together.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions she has had with her counterparts overseas on raising financial support for developing nations to tackle the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Coronavirus outbreak is the biggest global crisis in a generation. This calls for decisive and co-ordinated action to respond to the global health, economic and humanitarian implications, especially to support the poorest and most vulnerable.
The UK is playing a leading role in galvanising international action and unlocking timely financial support – both direct UK support and through the UN and the wider multilateral system. The UK is also using its voice and influence in key international forums such as the G7 and G20 - for example, helping secure agreement in the G20 to suspend all debt repayments for the poorest and most vulnerable countries until the end of 2020. The Secretary of State and I also work closely with our counterparts in other major donor countries including the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Australia to encourage funds to be made available as quickly as possible to where the risks and needs are greatest.
The UK is bringing others with us to raise much-needed financial support. For example, at the UK-hosted Global Vaccine Summit on 4 June world leaders, foundations, the private sector and civil society pledged $8.8 billion to help Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to address the short and long-term challenges posed by the pandemic.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative assessment he has made of the level of financial support for workers provided by (a) the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and (b) governments in other countries that are similarly affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Jesse Norman
On 12 May, the Chancellor announced an extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until the end of October. The scheme has been extended in full until the end of July, with changes concerning part-time working and employer contributions from August. The Government will keep all policies under review, and monitors the economic support packages for workers implemented by other governments around the world. Several other countries (such as Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada) have announced similar measures.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing financial assistance to the aviation sector during the covid-19 outbreak by introducing airline rescue packages equivalent to those taken by Governments in (a) the US, (b) Singapore, (c) Germany, (d) The Netherlands, (e) France, (f) Italy, (g) Australia, (h) Norway, (i) Sweden and (j) Finland.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government recognises the challenging times facing the aviation sector as a result of COVID-19 and the Chancellor wrote to the aviation sector on 24 March to set out the Government’s position and the support measures available. The Government has announced an unprecedented package of support for workers and businesses to protect against the current economic emergency.
This includes the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which help firms to retain employees. This Scheme will allow businesses to put employees on temporary leave, with the Government paying cash grants of 80% of their wages up to a cap of £2,500 per month, providing the business keeps the person employed.
The Government is also prepared to enter negotiations with individual companies seeking bespoke support as a last resort, having exhausted other options. However further taxpayer support would only be possible if all commercial avenues have been fully explored, including raising further capital from existing investors and discussing arrangements with financial stakeholders.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals arrived at the UK border from (a) Spain, (b) China, (c) Italy, (d) USA, (e) Iran, (f) Turkey and (g) France in each week since 1 January 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Border Force are unable to provide the arrival data requested, as it would require a manual review of thousands of records and this would be cost prohibitive.
Border Force are not responsible for making any medical assessments or medical interventions when dealing with individuals at the border.
Our approach to tackling coronavirus is and has always been driven by the latest scientific and medical advice, and procedures at the border have been strictly following the latest PHE guidance throughout.
In line with that advice, no changes have been required at the UK border.
To bolster public health measures already in place, passengers at airports are provided with information on symptoms and the social distancing processes.
Border Force continues to work collaboratively with devolved administrations, including Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and Public Health England, to support the COVID 19 response.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals arriving at the UK border from (a) Spain, (b) China, (c) Italy, (d) USA, (e) Iran, (f) Turkey and (g) France were (i) assessed for symptoms of and (ii) tested for covid-19 in each week from 1 January to 23 March 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Border Force are unable to provide the arrival data requested, as it would require a manual review of thousands of records and this would be cost prohibitive.
Border Force are not responsible for making any medical assessments or medical interventions when dealing with individuals at the border.
Our approach to tackling coronavirus is and has always been driven by the latest scientific and medical advice, and procedures at the border have been strictly following the latest PHE guidance throughout.
In line with that advice, no changes have been required at the UK border.
To bolster public health measures already in place, passengers at airports are provided with information on symptoms and the social distancing processes.
Border Force continues to work collaboratively with devolved administrations, including Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and Public Health England, to support the COVID 19 response.