Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when (a) the Government and (b) Public Health England first held discussions with the companies selected to participate in the covid-19 antibody testing programme.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
In April 2020, an industry call to action was announced. A number of existing suppliers and United Kingdom-based global companies responded positively to the Government’s call to action for a national effort on testing.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy to implement an elimination strategy in respect of covid-19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Total eradication of SARS-CoV-2 globally is unlikely (unless there is some unexpected biological change in the virus). Elimination nationally (i.e. bringing the number of locally acquired cases to zero) may be possible transiently but is highly unlikely to be possible permanently. Though other countries appear to have eliminated the virus locally, it is still early in the pandemic and the virus is very likely to reappear in these countries. Instead of eradication/elimination, a realistic public health goal would be to have very good control of transmission so that the number of new cases, and therefore the disease burden, is very low.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which (a) companies and (b) other organisations received funding from the public purse to work on the Government's centralised coronavirus contact-tracing app.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The National Health Service continues to work constructively with organisations that are helping to develop and test the NHS COVID-19 App. These companies include VMware/Vmware Pivotal Labs, Zuhlke Engineering, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, the University of Oxford, the BBC, the RAF, as well as partners in countries including Singapore, Norway, Ireland, Switzerland, New Zealand and Germany.
For more information on companies and organisations that have received funding, details on individual contracts can be found on Contract Finder on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the cost to the public purse of the development of the original centralised covid-19 contact-tracing app.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
To date, the cost of developing the National Health Service COVID-19 app is £10.8 million. Our investment in the Isle of Wight phase has provided us with valuable information that we can combine with Google and Apple’s technology in a new solution to support the entire NHS Test and Trace service in a product that is right for the British public.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timeframe is for the Test and Trace regime to be fully operational.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS Test and Trace is a new, large-scale service, which launched on 28 May.
We have recruited 27,000 contact tracing staff in England to support this service. In addition, a package of £300 million of new funding has been made available to local authorities to work with NHS Test and Trace to develop local outbreak control plans, building on the work already done so far to respond to COVID-19.
The latest data shows that in total, since 28 May 2020:
- 21,105 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in England and of these 20,968 (99.4%) were transferred for contract tracing;
- 72.6% (15,225) of the people who tested positive for COVID-19 were reached by our contact tracers and asked to share details of their close contacts; and
- 88.6% (113,925) of close contacts were reached and advised to self-isolate.
We are working to reach more people – and continually making improvements to the service to do that.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what lessons his Department learned from the development phase of the centralised coronavirus contact-tracing app; and which of those lessons were applied to the development of the Track and Trace app.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Rigorous testing has been underway through development of the contact tracing app, including during the Isle of Wight pilot and in field tests. All of the lessons learned will be applied to the development of the app moving forwards.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria his Department uses to assess companies for participation in the national covid-19 antibody testing programme.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Securing the most appropriate antibody assays for our testing programme is vitally important. We have been clear that any antibody test being deployed needs to meet the target product profile published by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Target Product Profiles describe the minimum and desirable levels of clinical performance and related characteristics and are regularly refreshed to reflect the emerging science and clinical evidence regarding serology testing. In addition, we will take into account the ability of the company to meet our needs for rapid deployment and scalability across the United Kingdom, along with their willingness to work with the Government to ensure we deliver value for money to the UK taxpayer.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire, representing the House of Commons Commission, what estimate the Commission has made of the number of additional House staff that will be required to be physically present on the Parliamentary estate to support the operation of Parliament as a result of the end of hybrid proceedings.
Answered by Pete Wishart
The House of Commons Commission is aware that up to 650 House Service and Parliamentary Digital staff may be required on site from Monday 1 June onwards. In addition to this figure there are additional passholders on the Parliamentary Estate including the Metropolitan Police and increasing numbers of construction contractors.
This increase is due to the end of hybrid proceedings, with the change in government guidance for sectors like construction also contributing to the increase.
The number provided represents staff on site over a 24-hour period.