Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which towns, counties or communities in England had an 'R' rate for COVID-19 reinfection in excess of 1.0 during June; what specific steps were taken in each of these areas to reduce the figure to below 1.0; and by what date this was achieved in each case.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government Office for Science currently publishes the latest estimate of the reproduction number (R) for the United Kingdom and NHS England regions on a weekly basis. We do not estimate R for geographies smaller than regional level.
R is an average value that can vary in different parts of the country, communities, and subsections of the population. It cannot be measured directly so there is always uncertainty around its exact value. This is problematic when calculating R using small numbers of cases, either due to lower infection rates or smaller geographical areas. This uncertainty may be due to variability in the underlying data, leading to a wider range for R and more frequent changes in the estimates. R is not the only important measure of the epidemic and should be considered alongside other measures such as the number of new cases.
For this reason, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergency’s view is that estimates of R for geographies smaller than regional level are less reliable. It is more appropriate to identify local hotspots through, for example, monitoring numbers of cases, hospitalisations, and deaths.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government to what extent they assess the effective reproduction number of COVID-19 for populations other than that of the UK as a whole; and, what was the effective reproduction number for respectively (1) England, (2) Wales, (3) Northern Ireland, and (4) Scotland, for the latest date when all four figures are available.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Science of Covid-19 note for House of Lords, which is attached due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government in which regions of England the COVID-19 R transmission rate has been recorded as being above 1.0 during (1) May, and (2) June.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government Office for Science has published estimates of R in NHS England regions for the past two weeks. These estimates are detailed in the following table. Regional R estimates are more uncertain and variability in the data means they are more likely to fluctuate from one week to the next.
R can only be estimated and not precisely calculated. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies’ view is that it is highly likely that the true value of R lies within the published range. If the range extends above 1 then this does not necessarily mean the epidemic in that region is increasing, just that the uncertainty in the data means it cannot be ruled out.
NHS England Region | Estimated R number | |
Published on 12 June | Published on 19 June | |
East of England | 0.7 – 0.9 | 0.7 – 0.9 |
London | 0.8 – 1.0 | 0.7 – 1.0 |
Midlands | 0.8 – 1.0 | 0.8 – 1.0 |
North East and Yorkshire | 0.7 – 1.0 | 0.7 – 0.9 |
North West | 0.8 – 1.0 | 0.7 – 1.0 |
South East | 0.8 – 1.0 | 0.7 – 0.9 |
South West | 0.8 – 1.1 | 0.6 – 0.9 |
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many contracts for the provision of personal protective equipment, needed to safeguard health and care workers against coronavirus, the National Health Service in England has placed with the Royal Mint; and whether the basis of charging for such orders has included any profit mark-up, over and above the full cost of manufacture
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have entered into one contract with the Royal Mint. This was for face visors and the Royal Mint expressed they were not making a profit but providing them at cost price to the Department.
Procurement Regulations require the publication of Contract Award Notices, containing information on the final agreed value of the contract, in the Official Journal of the European Union and we publish certain information on Contracts Finder about contracts awarded.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many consignments of personal protection equipment have been received by the UK, or by any individual nations of the UK, from the People’s Republic of China.
Answered by Lord Bethell
In March 2020 a new, dedicated unit was set up to focus on securing supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). This unit identified PPE suppliers from across the globe to meet the increasing demand for a growing list of PPE products. We have now contracted with over 150 suppliers able to deliver at the scale and pace the United Kingdom requires.
The central database system for these new PPE contracts, implemented by Cabinet Office colleagues, does not identify non-UK suppliers by individual country; and many of the UK-based suppliers also import supplies from other countries for which the information is not held centrally. It is therefore not possible to supply complete information on how much PPE has been received or purchased from non-UK countries, including China. Procurement Regulations require the publication of Contract Award Notices in the Official Journal of the European Union and certain information will be published on Contracts Finder about the contracts awarded.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they received from the Welsh Government concerning the possible redirection of a contract placed by the NHS in Wales with the Roche company, for equipment relevant to the coronavirus pandemic, for use by the NHS in England; and what is their policy relating to such matters.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The response to COVID-19 is a national effort and we are committed to working closely with the devolved administrations to align and coordinate testing efforts, where possible. This includes ensuring Wales receives its fair share of proprietary test kits.
In March 2020, Roche Diagnostics UK approached the United Kingdom Government to advise that it had a newly licensed COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which would shortly be available for use in the UK. Initial weekly test availability was 35,000 for the United Kingdom. Public Health England was commissioned by the UK Government to establish a public-private partnership with Roche to deliver this and it was agreed that it would be a UK-wide solution. This new and additional capability has enabled Wales to deliver over 28,000 PCR tests.