Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government why they are increasing the income threshold for high net worth individuals from £100,000 to £170,000; what forecast they have made of the impact of these changes on the numbers of women who may qualify; and what forecast they have made of the impact of these changes on women’s economic parity in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The changes to the financial promotion exemptions that came into force on 31 January 2024 were subject to a public consultation which closed in March 2022. Impacts of the proposals were considered, and a consultation response and de minimis impact assessment were published alongside the final reforms. The changes made aimed to both reduce the risk of consumer detriment and preserve the ability of SMEs to raise finance under the exemptions.
However, the Government recognises the significant concerns that have been raised recently about these changes. The Economic Secretary met last week with the angel investing sector and listened carefully to the representations made, and the Government is working closely with the sector to address the concerns raised.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether passport scans at UK airports will reveal the vaccinated status of UK citizens; and if so, (1) how this information has been obtained, and (2) how the permission of UK citizens has been obtained to allow this information to be shared.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The UK Government has signalled an intention to reduce health measure requirements for inbound passengers who have received two doses of an approved COVID-19 vaccine.
How evidence of this status is declared and shared by the individual is still being assessed.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that NHS Test and Trace functions successfully after the restrictions put in place by the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No.4) Regulations 2020 are lifted.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Since the most recent national restrictions in January, the Government has continued to to ensure that NHS Test and Trace functions successfully. NHS Test and Trace has the capacity to respond to increases in demand and is able to test over 750,000 people a day.
Contact tracing services have also increased. The number of cases being transferred to the contact tracing system in the week 4 February to 10 February 2021 was 105,764, compared to 3,571 in the week 2 July to 8 July 2020.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what advice they have received from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies on the ability of testing international arrivals for COVID-19 to provide a safe travel system.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government has taken scientific advice into account at each step of the development of COVID-19 border measures. The Government has recently introduced a suite of border measures to protect public health. These measures include introducing a pre-departure testing regime for international arrivals and the suspension of all travel corridors to England, meaning that all non-exempt international arrivals must self-isolate for 10 full days.
From 15 February, all travellers who in the 10 days prior to their arrival have been in a country from which travel to the United Kingdom is banned will be required to quarantine in Government managed facilities. All international arrivals will be required to take a mandatory COVID-19 test on day two and day eight of their quarantine period. The Test to Release scheme will remain available to international arrivals from countries that are not on the ‘red list’.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what advice they have received from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies about false positive results from COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction tests.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies published their paper Impact of false-positives and false-negatives in the UK’s COVID-19 RT-PCR testing programme on 3 June. A copy is attached. This paper indicated that the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain reaction assays used for the COVID-19 testing programme have been verified by Public Health England and show over 95% sensitivity and specificity. The current tests are very specific and the risk of false positives, where the test is reacting to other viruses, is extremely low. Like any diagnostic test there is a possibility of a false negative or false positive result, but this is very small. Independent, confirmatory testing of positive samples indicates a test specificity that exceeds 99.3%, a false positive rate of 1%. Additional guidance has been provided to laboratories to reduce the rate even further.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they adjust their estimates of the number of COVID-19 infections to reflect the number of false positive test results.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce rapid COVID-19 testing for all workplaces.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department is running a series of workplace testing pilots across the United Kingdom. Early detection of positive cases is the most effective way to prevent operational shutdown in key industries, performing vital public services. These pilots will enable information gathering which will help towards the objective of gradually increasing the number of sectors participating in routine workplace testing.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the economic impact of the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No.4) Regulations 2020.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
As the Chancellor said in his letter to the TSC on 4 November, HM Treasury does not prepare formal forecasts for the UK economy, which are the responsibility of the independent OBR. They will publish their next forecast on 25 November.
In addition, within their statutory mandates, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) produce analysis which reflect their independent judgements regarding the impact of Covid-19 on the likely path of the economy. They updated their projections in their Monetary Policy Report published on 5 November. This reflected UK restrictions announced up to 31 October, including “heightened England-wide measures for the period 5 November to 2 December”. In this scenario, GDP was revised downwards and is now expected to contract by 2% in Q4 reflecting the impact of stricter measures to control Covid-19.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce COVID-19 testing at airports; and if so, on what date they plan to introduce such testing.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is actively working on the practicalities of using testing to release people from self-isolation earlier than 14 days. The Global Travel Taskforce (GTT) is working at pace to consider how testing, technology and innovation can drive a recovery for international travel and tourism, without adding to infection risk or infringing on our overall NHS test capacity.
In its work, the GTT will seek to consult representatives from:
The Taskforce will submit its recommendations to the Prime Minister in November.
Asked by: Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No.4) Regulations 2020, what evidence was used to inform the decision to close certain categories of businesses; and what plans they have to publish any such evidence.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We believe the new regulations strike the right balance to take urgent action to stem the spread of the virus while also allowing essential retail to stay open and allowing the hospitality sector to remain open for delivery and takeaway.
Throughout this crisis, the Government and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, have provided robust scientific evidence and advice to guide decisions regarding the measures taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Indoor settings carry higher environmental risks, due to the close proximity of people and a longer duration of exposure. This evidence continues to be published online.
On 2 December, restrictions will expire, and we intend to return to a tiered system on a local and regional basis according to the latest data and trends.