Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their current estimate for (1) the proportion of polymerase chain reaction tests for COVID-19 that are false positives, and (2) the number of cycles that such tests now go through; and whether they will place details of the research that supports the estimate of false positives and the decision on the number of cycles to be used in the Library of the House.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The current sensitivity of our polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for COVID-19 at our lighthouse laboratories is over 99%. It is not possible to provide a precise figure for the number of cycles PCR tests for COVID-19 go through as this will vary from test to test based on a variety of different factors. All manufacturers of PCR tests for COVID-19 must meet the requirements of our validation process to ensure the accuracy of their tests. These requirements, National technical validation process for manufacturers of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) tests, are published online at GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford on 31 July 2019 (HL15681), when they estimate that the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust will publish the data collated as part of its study into early pubertal suppression in a group of adolescents with a clinical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The paper produced from this study was submitted for publication earlier this year and has now been subject to peer review. It is expected to be published shortly.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they are providing to the public, and via which channels, to help them reduce the risk of being defrauded by those impersonating the staff of the NHS test and trace service through texts, emails and phone calls; and who is responsible for taking steps to reduce the risk of such attempted frauds.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The NHS Test and Trace service was launched on 28 May 2020 and information on how the service will contact people by text, email and phone was published on 27 May in an online only format on GOV.UK.
Guidance on advice on how to protect yourself and business from fraud and cyber crime was released by the Home Office. This is available in an online only format on GOV.UK. It was last updated on 27 April 2020.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government who is responsible for reducing the risk of the public receiving fraudulent calls or emails purporting to come from the local authority and other teams involved in the NHS test and trace service.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government launched its new NHS Test and Trace service on 28 May 2020. This includes enhanced contact tracing.
NHS Test and Trace has been developed to government security standards and we have been working with the National Cyber Security Centre, on measures to keep the public safe. The NHS Test and Trace service uses text messages, email or phone. All text or emails will ask people to sign into the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing website with a set of unique characters provided alongside a secure link to the site. For those people that are unable to respond via email or text, perhaps because they do not have those options available to them, a phone-based service will contact them and support them through the process.
If the public are concerned about whether a call or email they receive comes from NHS Test and Trace service they can visit GOV.UK and view a page which lists the official phone numbers used by this service and can also check what is and is not going to be asked.
If anyone thinks they have been sent a scam message, they can report it to Action Fraud. If people receive an email which they are not quite sure about, they can forward it to the National Cyber Security Centre’s Suspicious Email Reporting Service and to report a spam text, they can forward the message to Ofcom’s spam texting service on 7726.
Any action to investigate reports of potential fraud will fall to the police / National Crime Agency and if prosecuted it will be for the courts to decide sentencing.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the penalties under civil or criminal law for (1) those organising frauds relating to the NHS test and trace service, () those aiding and abetting them, and (3) those who fail to take reasonable steps to protect their customers against such fraud; and what are the penalties for those employed in the NHS test and trace service, whether as individuals or as organisations, for misusing the information to which they have access.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government launched its new NHS Test and Trace service on 28 May 2020. This includes enhanced contact tracing.
NHS Test and Trace has been developed to government security standards and we have been working with the National Cyber Security Centre, on measures to keep the public safe. The NHS Test and Trace service uses text messages, email or phone. All text or emails will ask people to sign into the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing website with a set of unique characters provided alongside a secure link to the site. For those people that are unable to respond via email or text, perhaps because they do not have those options available to them, a phone-based service will contact them and support them through the process.
If the public are concerned about whether a call or email they receive comes from NHS Test and Trace service they can visit GOV.UK and view a page which lists the official phone numbers used by this service and can also check what is and is not going to be asked.
If anyone thinks they have been sent a scam message, they can report it to Action Fraud. If people receive an email which they are not quite sure about, they can forward it to the National Cyber Security Centre’s Suspicious Email Reporting Service and to report a spam text, they can forward the message to Ofcom’s spam texting service on 7726.
Any action to investigate reports of potential fraud will fall to the police / National Crime Agency and if prosecuted it will be for the courts to decide sentencing.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the process for reporting suspicious texts, emails and phone calls purporting to relate to the NHS test and trace service; to whom should such reports be made; whether Action Fraud and the Suspicious Email Reporting Service are involved; and, if so, whether there any plans for a separate, simpler process accessed from the main page of Action Fraud.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government launched its new NHS Test and Trace service on 28 May 2020. This includes enhanced contact tracing.
NHS Test and Trace has been developed to government security standards and we have been working with the National Cyber Security Centre, on measures to keep the public safe. The NHS Test and Trace service uses text messages, email or phone. All text or emails will ask people to sign into the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing website with a set of unique characters provided alongside a secure link to the site. For those people that are unable to respond via email or text, perhaps because they do not have those options available to them, a phone-based service will contact them and support them through the process.
If the public are concerned about whether a call or email they receive comes from NHS Test and Trace service they can visit GOV.UK and view a page which lists the official phone numbers used by this service and can also check what is and is not going to be asked.
If anyone thinks they have been sent a scam message, they can report it to Action Fraud. If people receive an email which they are not quite sure about, they can forward it to the National Cyber Security Centre’s Suspicious Email Reporting Service and to report a spam text, they can forward the message to Ofcom’s spam texting service on 7726.
Any action to investigate reports of potential fraud will fall to the police / National Crime Agency and if prosecuted it will be for the courts to decide sentencing.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
The Senior Deputy Speaker, further to the Written Answer by Lord McFall of Alcluith on 27 May (HL4295), whether he will supply full details of the regular surveys and other measures proposed to evaluate the effectiveness of initiatives to tackle bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct.
Answered by Lord McFall of Alcluith
The Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme, which constitutes a Parliament-wide regime for tackling bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct, was subject to a review after six months of operation, which has been published on the UK Parliament website, and a further review (the ’18-month review’) is planned for later this year, which is also expected to be published. This will be led by an independent reviewer, supported by an advisory panel, and will be an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of the Scheme, as well as to consider specific policy changes as directed by the 6-month review. The Codes of Conduct for Lords Members and Lords Members’ Staff now include the ICGS provisions on bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct, and these are kept under active review by the Conduct Committee.
In addition to the work to review the effectiveness of the ICGS, additional formal mechanisms are in place or planned which will help to assess progress on improving the broader workplace culture in the House of Lords and specific progress on addressing the recommendations made by Naomi Ellenbogen QC in 2019 in her review of bullying and harassment in the House of Lords. These include the Steering Group for Change, composed of staff and peer representatives, tasked with monitoring progress of implementation of Naomi Ellenbogen QC ’s report on bullying and harassment in the House of Lords, and providing advice and support to the Management Board and House of Lords Commission on their response to the report. There will also be a 12-month review of progress in implementing the recommendations of that report.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the tweet by the Department of Health and Social Care on 4 May that “There is emerging evidence to suggest that coronavirus may be having a disproportionate impact on some ethnic groups, as well as certain genders”, on what evidence they base their statement that gender affects the impact of COVID-19; what is their definition of gender when making that statement; how many affected genders they believe there to be; which are those affected genders; what consideration they gave to using the phrase “male” in place of “certain genders”; and what plans they have to use such a formulation in future.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government is concerned by the apparent disparities in how COVID-19 is affecting people. We have asked Public Health England to complete a rapid review to understand how COVID-19 may be having an impact on different groups of concern.
Short descriptions of the terms ‘sex’, ‘gender’, ‘transgender’ and ‘gender identity’ have been published by the Government Equalities Office.