My Lords, first, I pay tribute to the NHS—not just to our hospitals but to GPs, upon whom a very large burden has fallen with the good news about the reduction in hospital cases with the omicron variant. There has been a surge of requests for help from people who are ill at home, even if they are not ill enough to go to hospital. I also pay tribute to the continuing work of the vaccination teams, and to those working in social care; we know there has been a rise in cases in social care, whether in homes or among people being looked after at home. I particularly pay tribute to school staff, who have had to try to manage surges and the large numbers of cases since children returned after the Christmas holidays.
It is important to note that the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee noted that this SI, No. 1416, was implemented with immediate effect in December, but the following day, after errors were found, No. 1435 was laid to correct it—the Minister referred to this. However, it was not debated in December. I assume, although it is not listed so on the Order Paper, that we are actually debating both versions of this regulation. As the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee said very clearly and in bold, leaving nothing to the imagination:
“This is not an efficient way of handling legislation.”
We are beyond the time when, as in early 2020, we genuinely had to make regulations on the hoof as things about the pandemic became clear. As other speakers have already said, we knew that the omicron variant was building up, and these arrangements should have been clear. I want to ask the Minister about one of my concerns. Are officials in his department under considerable pressure because of the Health and Care Bill, as well as other legislation, meaning that things like this are just getting missed? It really is not an efficient way of handling legislation.
Given the Prime Minister’s Statement earlier today, which we will debate in your Lordships’ House tomorrow, and assuming that things are going to change, I presume that both of these regulations will be very short-lived. However, I want to make the point from these Benches that one of the key things that seems to be missing, again, is the difference between formal regulation—that is, rules—and strong messaging and guidance with strong communications messages, so that everybody can consider the broader picture, rather than thinking, “Phew, all the regulations are gone”. Instead, as others have said, we appear to be back to yet another freedom day, rather than understanding the level of Covid currently in our community.
Even if regulations were not renewed, and even with the encouraging drop in cases, the ONS says today that early estimates show that just under 3 million people in England, or 1 in 20 people, have had Covid in the last seven days. With omicron, reinfections are nearly double those of previous variants, even among those who are vaccinated. Despite it being milder and despite 60% of the public having had three vaccines, we still have these high figures. The Government’s own Covid dashboard confirms that data: yesterday, over 94,000 people tested positive and there were 438 deaths, with just under 2,000 over the last week. Hospital admissions are plateauing at just under 2,000 a day. Be in no doubt that our NHS, social care sector and schools are still very much in the eye of this storm.
The noble Baroness, Lady Foster, says that plan B should never have been introduced, but without those protections, our NHS and other public services would have fallen over. I note that in France, yesterday, they had well over 400,000 cases of omicron. The noble Baroness says the modelling numbers were way out. That is an appalling distortion of the truth. The whole point of modelling and having a range of models from different scientists is to plan for a range of numbers for cases, hospitalisations and deaths, as well as staff being off sick or self-isolating. The figures we have had have definitely fallen within that range—that has been well publicised.
The noble Baroness, Lady Foster, also proposed that all testing should stop, right now. How on earth would we have any idea how many cases there are in our community? Perhaps more importantly, how would we pick up new variants without testing? How on earth would people know when it is safe to visit elderly relatives in care homes or in hospitals, when we know that Covid spreads very quickly in hospital, with severe consequences for the vulnerable and immuno- compromised?
It is good that the numbers are beginning to fall, but it is not a total freedom day. So the cheers from the Benches—I was going to say Conservative Benches but they are also from the noble Baroness, Lady Fox —ring slightly hollow for me. I ask the Minister what advice will be given to venues, schools and people? Will it be the tone of the PM today to forget it all, as it is freedom day, or will there be a stronger message about taking responsibility for keeping people safe and encouraging them to consider continuing with masks?
I turn to the self-isolation regulation. Self-isolation has been absolutely vital over the last month. Can the Minister say what will happen if, as a result of stopping plan B, numbers start to increase again? Will we have to meet in Grand Committee again to look at reintroducing this regulation?
The noble Baroness, Lady Fox, raised the vaccination of NHS staff. I want to raise an issue the Health Service Journal picked up in the last couple of days about problems with the data for NHS staff. HSJ says it has talked to several trust chief executives and directors, who have all expressed concerns about the National Immunisation Management System and the National Immunisation and Vaccination System, which
support the management of flu and Covid vaccination programmes across England. The functionality of these two bodies includes helping to identify priority patients and record vaccinations given.
NHS England said that a small number of designated members of staff have been given access to this data to see whether NHS staff had been vaccinated or not, but some chief executives of NHS trusts say that almost one-third of staff members identified as unvaccinated have since come back with proof of vaccination. Many of them are outraged because, clearly, the database was wrong and they had been vaccinated a long time ago. Can the Minister say what will be done to sort out this data and make sure that people are providing the right information and, more importantly, that the NHS has the right information?
Finally, I turn to a topic that the Minister knows I raise whenever I can: issues relating to the clinically extremely vulnerable. In the light of the abolition of plan B, the clinically extremely vulnerable and the severely clinically extremely vulnerable continue to remain so. What advice will be given to them if everybody else stops wearing masks? What will happen to those still waiting for their third primary dose and their fourth booster? What will happen to those still waiting to hear whether they are eligible for treatment because they come into this category? From my postbag and from social media, it is clear that a large number of people who should be in that group have not yet been notified.