Yes, they have. Order!
Rather than demonising the private sector and those who work in it, we should be celebrating the invaluable contributions of those who have given so much. I single out the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, who did exactly that.
Some noble Lords, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Thornton and Lady Brinton, have expressed concern about the transparency of the Government’s approach. I assure both of them that transparency absolutely has been our watchword. We have published SAGE minutes, SPI-M minutes and SPI-B minutes. We have published an enormous amount of epidemiological information from the ONS, from REACT and from public and local authorities. No. 10 has given regular briefings on an almost daily basis. We have published the major contracts of those suppliers who have supplied us. We really could not have done more to share the intellectual property, analysis and commercial details of our response to this pandemic.
To those noble Lords with concerns about the workings of the virtual House under the circumstances of the pandemic, let me say this: I completely understand and share the frustrations of those who feel that the current circumstances are not a full-blooded version of Parliament in normal times. I agree that it is not the same. I think that Ministers get the scrutiny they deserve —they are under an enormous amount of pressure—but I acknowledge the points made by my noble friend Lord Cormack and others who yearn for a return to normal service.
The House has been heard in the debates that I have been in. The House has been heard when it has called for a great number of reforms. In different debates, I have run through lists of where we have moved on issues that the House has raised in particular. I have been here. I have appeared at the Dispatch Box 248
times. There have been 1,959 individual speaking events. There have been 25 Oral Statements, eight general debates, 28 OPQs, 17 TPQs and 1,229 FoIs. The idea that we have not been accountable is not quite right. I want to take a moment to thank the Lord Speaker, the usual channels and the staff of the Houses of Parliament for the amazing job they have done to keep the House open. I know that I speak on behalf of all those in the Chamber when I say that.
The noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, said that she is concerned about the impact assessments and economic analysis. This has been a recurring theme in many of our debates. As Health Minister, I have some sympathy for her points, but I would point her to Analysis of the Health, Economic and Social Effects of COVID-19. It is an utterly emphatic document that answers many of the points she alluded to. While she may not like the findings, the report does make it clear that the colossal and massive effects of the pandemic are so huge that there is no way of avoiding them other than getting rid of the pandemic itself.
I was greatly moved by the words of my noble friend Lady Stroud and her concerns about a torrent of fear, but I will be honest: I do not recognise the situation that she described. The idea that the press has somehow been cowed into submission and some kind of blind compliance by politicians or regulators is simply not my experience. The idea that scientists have been pressurised by the Government is not the view of the scientists themselves, nor does the evidence suggest that the great British public have been intimidated by government excess. In fact, it is the opposite: as noble Lords have heard from me before, the evidence suggests that the British public support enormously the NPIs, lockdowns and infection controls that we have put in place. That support for lockdown measures remains extremely high.
We are here to make laws. My experience of making laws over the past year is that they are being put in place not to lead to prosecutions or in any way intimidate the public but to be clear. The public deserve and expect Governments to be crystal clear about the behaviours that they hope for from the public. We respect the good sense of the British public, who, for their part, have a need, interest and requirement to know what is expected of them. That is why we reach for the law book when we are applying lockdown and NPI measures. I was hugely moved by the words of my noble friend Lady Stroud on the mental health of young people, but suggest that the connection between this and government lawmaking is not as strong as she suggests.
A number of noble Lords spoke of a dystopian legacy from the pandemic. My noble friends Lord Farmer and Lady Noakes, and the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, spoke in moving terms about the loss of liberty, coercion, mandation and a perpetual cycle of locking down, and remarked, quite rightly, that these are un-British values. As I have said before, I never expected to be standing at the Dispatch Box bringing in these kinds of regulations. But I think that my noble friend Lord Farmer overreaches when he says that we are creating a world that is hardly worth living in. We are protecting those who are vulnerable and those who are elderly.
While the challenge of the pandemic is enormous—the effects on health, education and the economy are profound—my outlook is much more optimistic than that of my noble friends. There is an opportunity for a positive legacy from this pandemic. It takes the form, for instance, of the reboot to our health system that I described earlier. There is an opportunity for a degree of civic renewal, evidenced, for instance, by the massive volunteering that we saw in both the return of healthcare professionals and those who sought to help their neighbours and those in need. There is great evidence that the British people want to be involved in supporting their neighbours and loved ones, and that is an opportunity that we should grab.
There has been a massive reboot in our attitudes to the old and the vulnerable. For those who saw them, the Shipman documentaries on the BBC raised the question of whether we have respected, cared for and loved the old. In this pandemic, we have seen how the lives and final years of the vulnerable are valued. The whole of British society has made an enormous sacrifice to demonstrate its love for the elderly and the vulnerable. We should hold on to that.
There is a new confidence around science, particularly around the vaccine, the ability of science to solve problems and Britain’s commitment to scientific discipline. And there is a new confidence about Britain’s role in the world. Those are British values that we should be proud of and can hold on to. If we make the right decisions, we have a chance to make sure that there is a benign legacy from this awful pandemic. We need to take the right steps to do that, and that it what lies before us in the year ahead.
In the spirit of that optimism, I ask the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, to stand down from her Motion to Regret. Nothing is perfect. Much of what happened during the pandemic is admirable, but we are in a much better place today than we were, and I very much hope that she sees fit to withdraw her Motion.