Summary

  • Health Secretary Matt Hancock says up to 50-75% of UK coronavirus cases are now of the Indian variant

  • Dr Jenny Harries, of the UK Health Security Agency, says cases have risen but with no sharp rise in people going to hospital

  • Hancock is asked if he told the prime minister everyone going from hospital to care home would be tested

  • He says he committed to getting the policy in place but "it took time to build the testing"

  • The government worked "incredibly hard to put in place what is needed to fight a pandemic", he says

  • He earlier told MPs the "unsubstantiated allegations" from Dominic Cummings that he lied during the pandemic "are not true"

  • An expanded study will look at whether different vaccines can be mixed without reducing effectiveness, Hancock says

  • Prime Minister Boris Johnson says there is "nothing in the data" to stop the final stage of lifting lockdown in England on 21 June

  • Sweden’s government says it is lifting some of the country's Covid-19 restrictions

  1. Global response plan to be discussed at G7published at 11:53 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Dr Luke EvansImage source, HoC

    Conservative MP Dr Luke Evans asks if Hancock will press the PM to make the case for a global response - and global resilience plan - when he hosts the G7 summit here in the UK.

    Hancock says Boris Johnson does not need to be pushed on this issue as he is already convinced of the need for this.

    Work on this will be done at the health ministers' G7 in Oxford, and then at the leaders' summit in Cornwall.

    Hancock speaks of the importance of "reforming and strengthening global institutions" as well as "learning lessons at home".

  2. Hancock: People should be proud of UK sending Oxford jab abroadpublished at 11:52 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    SNP MP Patrick Grady asks about sending surplus vaccines and PPE to other countries - and how it squares with the government's decision to cut international aid.

    He asks: Are those vaccine donations being counted towards the international aid budget?

    Matt Hancock says the UK is donating items directly to countries such as India.

    "The single biggest global contribution that the UK has made is the Oxford vaccine which is being delivered at cost by AstraZeneca around the world following funding from Oxford University, AstraZeneca and the UK government.

    "It's something everybody in all parts of this country should be proud of."

    The World Health Organization has previously called on richer countries such as the UK to do more to help poorer countries get vaccinated. There are vast differences in the pace of progress around the world which you can read about here.

  3. Did Hancock sign off on care home discharge policy?published at 11:48 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Labour MP Barbara Keeley says coronavirus entered care homes at the start of the pandemic, due to the discharge policy requiring care homes to take asymptomatic patients.

    Keeley - a member of the committee questioning Dominic Cummings, asks if Hancock knew the discharge process did not require testing and if he signed off on it.

    It led to "thousands of avoidable deaths", she adds.

    He replies he has answered this question many times and that the challenge is the testing capacity had to be built up at the time.

    He says he was focused on protecting those in care homes as well as working on the capacity for daily tests. and millions of tests are now available every day, he adds.

  4. Why was there no national plan for pandemic?published at 11:44 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Labour's Barry Sheerman says pandemics have not gone away and the disturbing thing that came out of yesterday's evidence was there seemed not to have been any national plan.

    Every local authority has a plan for dealing with emergencies, he says, so does the government now have one?

    Hancock says we have learned a huge amount about how to respond to a pandemic and have built "assets and capabilities" such as the vaccination programme and testing.

    We need to be "turbo charged" however, he says on the vaccination programme, mass testing to break the chains of transmission, and cautious as measures are lifted.

  5. Hancock asked to apologise out of respect to bereaved familiespublished at 11:42 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Rushanara AliImage source, HoC

    Labour MP Rushanara Ali says more than 500 residents in her borough of Tower Hamlets in London died with coronavirus and her own family lost five relatives.

    She says yesterday's hearings were "incredibly distressing" - especially hearing Dominic Cummings say tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily.

    She asks: out of respect to those families, will Matt Hancock admit to failures and apologise? And will he bring forward the date for the inquiry?

    "The pandemic has taken far too many people away far too soon," says Hancock in reply. "And that's happened in her family and it's happened in mine.

    "She's absolutely right, that we need to ensure that we learn as a country how to prepare as well as we possibly can for pandemics in the future.

    "As it is likely that pandemics will become more frequent, not less. And it is vital that people have the opportunity to get answers."

    Hancock says there needs to be a full inquiry afterwards.

  6. Should PM have sacked Cummings?published at 11:38 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Conservative Peter Bone asks if Hancock thinks the only mistake the PM made in the pandemic was not firing Dominic Cummings soon enough.

    Hancock says "the honest truth" is that from the start he has been "totally focused" on how to get out of the pandemic.

    He says the operation of government has got easier in the past six months.

    Everyone is "laser focused" on dealing with the virus he says.

  7. MP pokes fun at Cummings' new supporterspublished at 11:33 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    William WraggImage source, HoC

    Conservative MP William Wragg uses his question to suggest many former critics of Dominic Cummings have switched to support him now that he is criticising Boris Johnson.

    He says many people have had a "strange epiphany" from considering Cummings as someone whose words and deeds could not be trusted, into a "prophet who fresh from the wilderness brings with him supposed truths written on tablets of stone".

    His comments prompt some laughter from other MPs in the Commons chamber.

  8. Hancock: Government will learn lessonspublished at 11:32 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Conservative Andrew Murrison asks about planning for a sustainable health care workforce, should there be another health emergency in the future.

    In particular, he asks, what plans are in place to ensure the UK has enough individuals with the right skills to cope with a health crisis?

    Hancock says he has been transparent throughout the pandemic and has welcomed the national audit office to look at various things such as stocks of PPE.

    But whatever lessons there are to be learned, the government will learn them, he says.

  9. Hancock asked to apologise to families for deathspublished at 11:30 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Matt Hancock addressing the House of CommonsImage source, HoC

    MP Matt Western, Labour MP for Warwick and Leamington, says Hancock claims to have always been straight.

    But, he challenges, the health secretary was not straight over the need for higher-grade masks for frontline NHS staff and care workers, nor the need for the public to wear them at the start of the pandemic.

    He also says Hancock has not been straight over the test and trace scheme.

    Westerns asks, "given yesterday's revelations" from Cummings, if he will apologise to Warwickshire families for 344 excess deaths resulting from his decision to discharge hospital patients directly into care homes.

    Hancock says he does not recognise those figures but recognises "the challenge of keeping people safe in care homes in unprecedented circumstances".

    He adds that one of the biggest testing laboratories in the country is being built in Leamington Spa and he would like to work with Western on this, and to "make sure it is a model for how we do diagnostics".

  10. Hancock asked whether he is calling care home owner a liarpublished at 11:28 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Labour MP Mohammad Yasin asks a question about one of his constituents, a care home owner who was told in late May that if she refused to allow a hospital patient back into the care home, they would be discharged to another care home.

    He says he knows Hancock wants to dismiss Dominic Cummings' claims on care homes - "but to do so would mean calling the care home owner a liar", says Yasin.

    "Who is responsible for this high number of unnecessary deaths," he asks, "the health secretary or prime minister?"

    Hancock says the government has answered this question many times before.

    "It's another example of constantly learning about the virus," he says. "As we learn the impact of asymptomatic transmission in particular, so we changed the protocols in care homes over the summer and put in place the winter plan.

    "We're constantly looking to make sure we can learn as much as possible and work with the sector."

  11. Watch: Hancock answers Cummings allegationspublished at 11:24 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Media caption,

    Covid: Matt Hancock answers Dominic Cummings allegations

    At the start of this session Matt Hancock was asked by Labour shadow Jonathan Ashworth if the claims made by the PM's former adviser Dominic Cummings on Wednesday are correct.

    Hancock said the "unsubstantiated allegations around honesty" were not true, as he gives figures on the number of questions, statements and press statements he has answered over Covid.

    You can watch a clip above.

  12. Hancock 'has thrown the kitchen sink at Bolton'published at 11:23 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Matt HancockImage source, HoC

    Conservative Mark Logan thanks Hancock for taking the time to respond with helpful advice.

    Hancock has "thrown the kitchen sink" at Bolton to help it deal with the resurgence of the virus, he says.

    The health secretary admits there is a "significant challenge" in Bolton right now with high levels of transmission.

    But he says it is great to see the queues for vaccinations there and he urges people to keep coming forward.

  13. Hancock: Vaccine is Britain's 'gift to the world'published at 11:18 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Hancock says there have been 450 million doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccine administered around the world.

    He says it has been distributed "at cost" and is the best "gift to the world" that Britain could give.

    It is the result of a "team effort", Hancock says, and it is helping the whole world.

  14. Lucas: 'Bereaved families deserve better'published at 11:18 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Caroline LucasImage source, HoC

    Green Party MP Caroline Lucas says the families of the bereaved "deserve better than the grotesque pantomime of the Cummings evidence session yesterday".

    At the very least, she says, they deserve the publication of the internal lessons-learned review.

    The big question, adds Lucas, is not just about mistakes made last March but why lessons had not been learned from them with the government continuing on a path that "risks lives and livelihoods".

    Hancock says lessons have been learned all the way through, with scientific developments being followed by ministers.

    There will be a "full inquiry afterwards to make sure we can learn further for the future", he adds.

  15. Hancock: Devolved nations and UK government worked togetherpublished at 11:16 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Alba Party's Neale Hanvey says people are "aghast" and Hancock "quite literally ran away from his responsibilities".

    He wants to know what the policy on care homes is and says Hancock must resign if allegations against him are substantiated.

    Hancock says the Scottish government had to respond to the same challenges and dilemmas as the UK government and everyone was working together to accelerate testing.

    Edinburgh faced the same challenges as Westminster and the best way to deal with them was to work together, he says.

  16. Hancock: One in 10 in hospital with Covid have had both jabspublished at 11:10 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Matt HancockImage source, HoC

    Conservative MP Mark Harper asks Matt Hancock about the Indian variant.

    He says the evidence suggests the vaccines are very effective in stopping serious disease, including in cases of the Indian variant. He asks: If that remains the case, does Hancock agree there will be no reason not to open up on 21 June?

    "That is literally the most important question to which we do not yet have a full answer," says Hancock.

    "The data that we have is that in the hotspot areas around one in 10 of those in hospital are people who have had both jabs.

    "The fact that 90% are people who have not yet been double vaccinated gives us a high degree of confidence that the vaccine is highly effective but it also shows - the fact there's 10% who have been double vaccinated - that it isn't 100% effective."

  17. DUP: Include Northern Ireland in public inquirypublished at 11:06 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    The DUP's Jim Shannon says his mother-in-law died last year during the pandemic and while he does not blame anyone, people do need answers.

    People in Northern Ireland have questions about the virus, he says, asking if they can they be part of the public inquiry.

    Hancock praises vaccine progress in Northern Ireland and says "of course" the inquiry "must and will cover the entire United Kingdom" and will look at the activities of the UK government and the devolved administrations.

    He says the logistics have yet to be worked out but there will consultation on the way ahead.

  18. Hancock: Followed advice on care homespublished at 11:05 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Munira WilsonImage source, HoC

    Liberal Democrat Munira Wilson asks when testing on discharge from hospitals in to care homes actually happened.

    Hancock says it has been an incredibly difficult time for those who live and work in care homes.

    It was a "difficult challenge" at the start of the pandemic when many aspects of the virus were unknown, he says.

    But the government followed the clinical advice on the way forward, he says.

  19. Will PM be investigated 'for alleged corporate manslaughter', MP askspublished at 11:04 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Yasmin Quereshi, Labour MP for Bolton South East, says her constituents have been wrongly accused of vaccine hesitancy - and then there was the "quasi lockdown" that no one knew about, with travel plans thrown into chaos.

    She says constituents can forgive that - but says what cannot be forgiven is the "tens of thousands who died and did not need to die - the chilling words of Dominic Cummings".

    She asks Hancock to tell her when the PM and others will be investigated by police "for alleged corporate manslaughter"- and asks why the UK did not follow the example of New Zealand, which managed to control the virus with a minimal number of deaths.

    Hancock answers this with a "no, Mr Speaker" before going on to praise the people of Bolton for having "risen to this challenge", saying the number of those being vaccinated there has been "phenomenal".

    He says it has not been easy for anyone but especially those in Bolton, which has seen a surge in the variant first discovered in India.

  20. Hancock: It's difficult responding to a pandemicpublished at 10:59 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

    Conservative MP Mike Wood praises the government on its response, such as on testing and vaccines. He asks if Matt Hancock is aware of anything that has changed during the past six months that has helped the government response?

    Hancock says it is "very difficult responding to an unprecedented challenge of this scale", but he believes that over the past six months "people have seen that governing has become a little easier and we've been able to deliver".