Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which, if any, local authorities in Cumbria requested a delay to county council elections this year prior to the announcement of a delay in such elections to 2022.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Cumbria County Council made a request to the Secretary of State to postpone its May 2021 local elections, following the Government’s Written Ministerial Statement of 12 October 2020 (UIN - HLWS496). As explained in the Explanatory Memorandum to the secondary legislation (SI 2021 No. 174) which was laid before Parliament on 24 February, the Government has decided to reschedule from May 2021 to May 2022 local elections to Carlisle City Council, Cumbria County Council, and South Lakeland District Council.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what weighting system, if any, will be used to assess responses from different stakeholders to the public consultation on local government reorganisation in Cumbria.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government welcomes the views of all those interested in the proposals for local government reorganisation in Cumbria, including local residents, town and parish councils, businesses and the voluntary sector. Once the consultation is concluded, the Government will decide, subject to parliamentary approval, which, if any, proposals are to be implemented, with or without modification. In taking these decisions it will have regard to all the representations it has received, including those from the consultation, and all other relevant information available to it, and reach a balanced judgement assessing the proposals against criteria, including on local support which will be assessed in the round across the whole area of the proposal.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria they will use to assess local support in the public consultation on local government reorganisation in Cumbria, published on 22 February.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government welcomes the views of all those interested in the proposals for local government reorganisation in Cumbria, including local residents, town and parish councils, businesses and the voluntary sector. Once the consultation is concluded, the Government will decide, subject to parliamentary approval, which, if any, proposals are to be implemented, with or without modification. In taking these decisions it will have regard to all the representations it has received, including those from the consultation, and all other relevant information available to it, and reach a balanced judgement assessing the proposals against criteria, including on local support which will be assessed in the round across the whole area of the proposal.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to align the COVID-19 restriction level in Ulverston, Cumbria, with Barrow-in-Furness.
Answered by Lord Bethell
As of 6 January, all areas have been moved into tier 4 and the Government will review the tiering allocations every 14 days.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people in total have referred themselves for a NHS COVID-19 test; and what estimate they have made of the percentage of those people who self-referred who had (1) a cough, (2) a temperature, (3) a loss of taste, (4) multiple symptoms, and (5) no symptoms.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We do not publish data in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to undertake a strategic review of the role biologics manufacturing could play in pandemic responsiveness and resilience.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Currently the UK does not have the capability or scale to manufacture bulk levels of antibodies; the Vaccine Taskforce identified this as a potential weakness in the UK’s future pandemic response.
As a result, the Government issued a Prior Information Notice in October 2020 to engage with the market to explore how UK antibody manufacturing capability can be developed to secure permanent UK access and build resilience. The findings from the market engagement exercise, and the wider landscape of the pandemic, has resulted in the need for a broader strategic review of the role that biologics manufacturing could play in pandemic responsiveness and resilience.
The Government has invested over £300 million to secure and scale-up the UK’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to the pandemic. This includes:
a) Facilities that have come online:
b) Facilities that will come online later this year, to help provide longer term UK capacity and will help in pandemic preparedness:
In addition to the above, we have also funded the expansion of the Valneva factory in Livingston, Scotland.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for greater UK manufacturing capacity of monoclonal antibodies; and what steps they intend to take to secure such capacity.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Currently the UK does not have the capability or scale to manufacture bulk levels of antibodies; the Vaccine Taskforce has identified this as a potential weakness in the UK’s future pandemic response.
As a result, the Government issued a Prior Information Notice in October 2020 to engage with the market to explore how UK antibody manufacturing capability can be developed to secure permanent UK access and build resilience. The findings from the market engagement exercise, and the wider landscape of the pandemic, has resulted in the need for a broader strategic review of the role that biologics manufacturing could play in pandemic responsiveness and resilience.
The Government has also invested £127 million in the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult Braintree, which as well as vaccine drug substance manufacture, has the capability for antibody scale-up and clinical scale production of neutralising antibodies for prophylactic and therapeutic treatment.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they intend to incorporate the UK life sciences sector in their Project Defend strategy.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
The coronavirus pandemic demonstrated the importance of resilient supply chains to ensure the continued flow of critical goods and to keep global trade moving. The Department for International Trade (DIT) is working to strengthen the UK’s wider critical supply chain resilience. This includes diversification to keep supply chains open and promoting international collaboration to reduce incentives for trade restrictions, as well as improving domestic supply chain resilience.
Working closely with our global partners and UK industry, including the life sciences sector, DIT continues to establish greater international cooperation, understand supply chain vulnerabilities, share diagnosis and inform a coordinated response to our shared challenges.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of travel-to-work areas that cross local authority boundaries when setting levels of COVID-19 restrictions for local areas.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Work travel patterns factored into the decision making. It is important to apply restrictions to broad geographical areas where there are significant interconnected economic and social networks. This approach enables the same restrictions to apply where people are likely to work and socialise.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish detailed guidance on the type of cough that should prompt a person to book a COVID-19 test.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The three main symptoms of COVID-19 are a high temperature, a loss or change to sense of smell or taste and a new continuous cough. This means coughing for more than an hour or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours.