My Lords, I thank my noble friend, both for his Answer to my Question earlier, which I would like to pursue in more depth here, and for moving the regulations today. I also pay tribute to the work that he, the ministerial team and the department have done. They have worked exceptionally hard in challenging circumstances. I declare my interest as an adviser to the board of the Dispensing Doctors’ Association.
I understand, as my noble friend said in response to my Question earlier, that the department and the Government are reaching a balance in living with
Covid. The context of these regulations must be set against that background. My concern is that we are still relying on the vaccination programme. I pause and say how welcome the vaccination and booster programme has been. I particularly welcome the fourth jab being rolled out to the most vulnerable. It seems slightly patchy: we heard earlier that some in London have a date for their vaccination, but hearsay and anecdotal evidence are that people are being told that they will have a vaccination but have no date yet.
My main concern is simply this. The Secretary of State has said publicly, and my noble friend has repeated it in the House and in Committee today, that the Government hope to respond and keep the development of the pandemic under review. I welcome that but my concern is very simple: that we are removing all the tools to enable the Government to do so.
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I was sent a helpful briefing by the BMA in preparation for my Question earlier, which is also helpful in responding to the regulations before us. The changes already undertaken include that testing in schools was, apparently, removed on 21 February and, on 24 February, that the legal requirements to self-isolate following a positive test were removed. I presume that also applies to employers ensuring that they act responsibly in allowing someone who has tested positive to refrain from working. On 24 March, there will be a removal of provisions of support: the Covid-19 provisions within the statutory sick pay and employment support allowance regulations will be removed then, while 1 April sees the removal of guidance and free testing. My noble friend referred to the new guidance and it would be extremely helpful if the Committee could be told this afternoon when that guidance will be published. Perhaps we could have sight of it if it is available.
If we remove the free testing, doctors are extremely concerned that we are going to have a two-tier type of system. There will be those who feel they can afford the testing and, if they test positive, that they would not present themselves at work but could stay at home—I think all of us in this place would fall into that category. However, there are those already finding the cost of living very difficult, including the cost of energy and the high level of inflation, quite before we had the hostilities with Russia invading Ukraine.
Does the Minister honestly believe, in his heart of hearts, that people are going to test in those circumstances if they feel they cannot afford either to do so or, more importantly, to stay away from work because that would put themselves and their families at some risk? We have to accept that in many households now, there might be only one breadwinner as a result of Covid. I can see that the Government are caught in this trap between trying to get people back to work and trying to learn to live with Covid.
I would like to put another question to the Minister. The level of infections may spiral; we are seeing 220,000-plus infections a day. While I realise it is not as dangerous as before, that is down to the excellent work of the vaccinations and those who delivered them, including the Government who paid for those vaccinations. It has been a public health programme and that has
been very welcome. I cannot remember whether it was the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, or the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, who said earlier that there are about 2 million infections in total at the moment. That is a quite staggering amount.
I will admit that my family have probably done 100 years’ service between them in the health service. I am quite pleased that none of them is still in practice at the moment, because the BMA and practitioners are concerned that free tests are going to go, along with the responsibility for employers to ensure that their staff are not coming in with Covid. Also, there is no legal obligation to self-isolate—I think that is from now on—while, from 1 April, the self-isolation support payments will go.
We seem to be facing a potential storm. In Denmark where I have family, I have watched exactly the same thing happen. They lifted all the restrictions at once, and there was a veritable storm. There was then a new mutation, a new variant. Thankfully it was not a very dangerous one, but it has helped to fill the hospitals. For someone such as my aunt, who feels particularly vulnerable because she is now in her mid-80s—I do not think she has been offered a second booster or a fourth jab—this is obviously very worrying.
I shall stop speaking, because otherwise I risk repeating myself. Those are my concerns: that the Government are saying, “We’re going to respond to a sudden upsurge, but we’re going to take away the tools for doing so.” As we lift the restrictions in the regulations before us today, I ask my noble friend the Minister to look at the situation in July last year, when, with the schools still sitting, there was an uptick.
My noble friend referred to the responsibilities of local authorities, which will have powers taken away from them under these regulations but will rely on the existing regulations. He did not say what resources would be made available to local authorities. I follow developments in North Yorkshire as closely as I can. I know that there is real concern there about looking after particularly vulnerable people, both in hospitals and in care homes. Will he say whether any extra resources are being given? In local authorities such as North Yorkshire and others across the country, London included, if it transpires that the big uptick in Covid cases leads to a surge, will he confirm that healthcare workers delivering care in hospital settings, homes and care homes will be alerted if a close relative has Covid, in the sense of their potentially needing to self-isolate in those circumstances?