The comments made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 29 March 2021.
I’m absolutely thrilled that more than 30 million people have now had the jab across the UK – including 650,000 vaccinations delivered yesterday.
The vaccine is saving lives and is our route out of this pandemic. I want to say a massive thanks to the team.
When you get the call – get the jab.
The comments made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 29 March 2021.
Good physical and mental health are central to our happiness and well-being. Yet so much of what keeps us healthy happens outside of hospital and the health service.
By establishing the Office for Health Promotion we will bring health promotion into the heart of Government, working to the Chief Medical Office, so we can level up the health of our nation, working across national and local government.
Prevention is better than cure. By putting in place innovative prevention measures, we can help everyone to live longer, healthier lives as we ease back to normality, and relieve pressures from our NHS.
The comments made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 28 March 2021.
Rapid testing is a vital part of our roadmap, helping us to cautiously lift restrictions on our economy and society.
Around one in three people with coronavirus do not have any symptoms, so extending employee testing from the workplace to the home will help us identify more cases we otherwise wouldn’t find, prevent further transmission and save lives.
60,000 businesses across the country have already registered for free, regular and rapid tests and I encourage many more to take up the offer, helping to keep their employees and their families safe.
The comments made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 14 March 2021.
The backing of the charities who work every day to support those who are entitled to a jab as part of cohort 6 is a great boost for the vaccine rollout and shows what we can achieve when we pull together.
This open letter is a hugely important way to reassure those with underlying health conditions, and their carers, about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
The charities’ support for this national vaccine effort is invaluable in encouraging more people to come forward and helping us to save lives.
The comments made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 13 March 2021.
We have built a huge asymptomatic testing system from scratch, which is an essential part of our plan to reopen cautiously.
Rapid testing has been rolled out at a vast scale across a range of sectors, and it is fantastic that now over 48,000 businesses have signed up to offer rapid testing to employees. This is a huge step forward in getting businesses back on their feet and helping to keep people safe.
With around 1 in 3 people with the virus not having symptoms, regular testing is essential to bearing down on the virus and identify new variants of concern as we work towards restoring normal life. I strongly encourage all businesses to register their interest before the 31 March deadline.
The statement made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 5 March 2021.
Good afternoon and welcome to Downing Street for today’s coronavirus briefing.
I’m joined by Dr Susan Hopkins, from Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace.
Today, I’ve got an update on progress in our battle against coronavirus, some new evidence of the effectiveness of the vaccines, an update on the cases of the Brazilian variant of concern and extra funding to support mental health in schools.
Because, of course, on Monday that marks our first step in our opening up after this lockdown.
Next week, classrooms will be buzzing with activity once more. I know parents across England will be delighted and relieved that all children are going back to school.
Also, from Monday, I’m just so pleased that we’re able to reopen care homes to visitors.
We’ve put in place a really careful policy so each care home resident will be able to register a single regular visitor, who’ll be tested and wear PPE.
I know this really matters to hundreds of thousands of people with a loved one in a care home.
And I’m really glad that we can make this step.
So, first, let’s turn to the latest coronavirus data.
This data shows this progress we’ve made, including more evidence on the impact of the vaccine in saving lives.
First slide please.
Here, you can see the number of cases of COVID-19.
I’m pleased to say that the cases are still falling.
The average daily number of cases is now 6,685 – the lowest since late September and the weekly case rate across the UK is now 84 per 100,000.
The latest figures from the ONS, which were published earlier today, reported a further significant decline. They show that in England 1 in 220 people have coronavirus, a fall from 1 in 145 last week.
This is all encouraging news and it should give us all confidence that we can safely take the steps we’re taking on Monday.
Next slide please.
Slide 2 shows the hospital admissions with COVID and it shows that they are falling too.
There are still 12,136 people in hospital in the UK with COVID.
That’s still too high, but the average number of new admissions to hospital is 900, the lowest since October.
Next slide please.
Thankfully, the number of deaths with COVID are also declining steeply.
The average number of deaths per day is 248, also the lowest since October.
And here, the decline is in fact accelerating.
The halving time of the number of deaths has come down from 19 days – so the number of deaths each day – last month, to halving every 11 days now.
Not only that, there are now fewer people dying of all causes in care homes than is normal for this time of year.
Taken together, these 3 slides show that we’re heading in the right direction, although there is further to go. And what we can also see in the data, across the whole UK, is that the vaccine programme is working to protect the NHS and saving lives.
Next slide please.
The best way to see this is by looking at how fast cases, hospital admissions and deaths are falling.
The number of cases have been falling, in a fairly even way, since around the middle of January, by a quarter every week. Just a little bit more in the past few days.
It’s not been completely smooth.
A week ago, I stood here and we said that we were worried that the fall in cases was slowing down.
Thankfully, as you can see in the chart, that now looks more like a temporary blip.
Which is good news for us all.
Next slide please.
Now let’s turn to the number of hospital admissions.
Again, this is falling steadily, at around a quarter every week.
But there are early signs that this fall is getting a bit faster.
In fact, the 29% fall in the last week is the fastest fall in hospital admissions at any point in the entire pandemic.
Final slide please.
But where you can really see the effect of the vaccine is in the fall of the number of deaths.
The number of deaths is falling faster and faster.
And now deaths are falling by over a third every week. And in fact in the last week have fallen by 41%.
Faster than before.
The Chief Medical Officer told us weeks ago that you’d first see the effect of the vaccine in fewer people dying, and then in reduced hospitalisations.
And I believe that that is exactly what’s happening.
What this all shows is that the link from cases to hospitalisations and then to deaths, that have been unbreakable before the vaccine – that link is now breaking. The vaccine is protecting the NHS and saving lives and that right across the country, this country’s plan is working.
And as well as this real-world data, I want to share the results of a study by the University of Bristol which clearly shows the difference our vaccination programme is making.
The study looked at all patients over 80 who were admitted with serious respiratory disease in Bristol.
The results showed a single dose of both the Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca jab offers around 80% protection against hospitalisation after at least 2 weeks even amongst the most frail, and those with underlying medical conditions.
Again, as with the data that were published last week, the effect was slightly stronger in the Oxford jab than with Pfizer. What this corroborates is that what we have seen over the past couple of weeks is that vaccines work. And they’re the best way of securing our freedom.
As of midnight last night 21.3 million people have been vaccinated.
I can tell you that we have vaccinated two fifths of the entire adult population of the United Kingdom.
Yesterday, I was in Scotland, seeing the combined teamwork of NHS Scotland, Scottish local authorities and the armed forces, delivering jabs in Hamilton.
They were all working together as one, towards a common goal. Protecting us all.
As anyone who has been to a vaccination centre will know, the joy on people’s faces when they get the jab is unbelievably uplifting.
And more and more people will be getting this feeling of protection over the next few weeks and months.
We’re on course to hit our target of offering a first dose to everyone who’s 50 or over, or part of an at-risk group, by 15 of April.
And all adults by the end of July.
The vaccine roll-out has allowed us to set out our roadmap for how we’ll carefully lift some of the restrictions that we’ve all endured for far too long.
And as we do this, we’ll be drawing on the huge testing infrastructure that is now in place.
We are now testing 2.8 million people a week.
The roadmap is built on the principle of replacing the protection that comes from lockdown with the protection that comes from vaccines and regular testing.
So, as we open up – for instance, care homes as I mentioned a moment ago, to visitors – that will come with regular testing for visitors.
And as schools and colleges return we will be giving teachers, staff, parents, secondary and college students and their households access to rapid regular testing twice a week in term time and in holidays.
And I urge all those and the households of those who are going back to school or to college next week to take up this offer
One of the most dangerous things about this virus – one of those dangerous things – is that around one third of those who get it don’t get any symptoms at all and yet can still pass the disease on to others.
That’s why it’s so important that all of us follow the social distancing and take the precautions that we know we must.
So rapid, regular testing is a critical part of our response.
And we can do so much more because of the huge capacity we’ve built up in NHS Test and Trace.
I would urge you if you’re eligible to participate in one of these regular testing programmes like I do, because that is how we will keep this virus under control as we continue to roll out the vaccine
For more information on how you can get a test, go to gov.uk/coronavirus.
I’d urge everyone who’s eligible to get that regular testing.
Now, I know that this pandemic has been an anxious time for so many young people.
Growing up, after all, is tough enough at the best of times.
But during these difficult times, it’s even tougher.
Home schooling, being unable to see your friends, sport cancelled, and being stuck at home.
I know just how much people are looking forward to going back to school, seeing friends in a classroom not just on Zoom.
Monday will be a long-awaited day for many.
But for some it’ll be a moment of unease and anxiety too.
We need to help young people to get through this and get their life going again.
And give them the help and support that they need.
We’ve worked hard throughout the pandemic to make sure mental health services are open. And we’ve set up 24/7 support for those in need.
I’m delighted to announce today that we’ll be allocating an extra £79 million to boost mental health support for children and young people.
Almost 3 million children and young people will benefit from more mental health support teams, and those mental health support teams in schools will be working hard to ensure people get access to the support and care that they need.
And we’ll be expanding access to mental health services in the community too.
I’d like to end with some good news on our work to tackle new variants.
Thanks to the brilliant team who’ve been working so hard over the past week, we’ve now successfully identified the sixth case of the variant of concern first identified in Manaus in Brazil.
Using the latest technology, and the dogged determination of our testing and tracing scheme, we’ve successfully identified the person in question.
The best evidence is that this person in question stayed at home and that there’s no sign that there’s been any onward transmission.
But as a precaution, we’re putting more testing in Croydon, where they live, to minimise the risk of spread.
This positive outcome was only possible because of the huge genome sequencing capacity that we now have in this country and our test and trace team, so we could identify these cases, track them down and contact them.
It shows how important this capacity we’ve built is, and how important it is to be transparent whenever new variants are found.
Because whether it’s here at home or around the world, testing, sequencing and being transparent about what you find helps stop the spread of this disease – and in particular these variants of concern which are so worrying – and protects lives.
I’m really delighted at the work the team have done this week. They’ve worked absolutely flat out since these 6 cases were first identified on Friday and found the 6 positive cases, even though the form wasn’t filled in quite right.
So Susan is going to say a little bit more about this in a moment but my summary is:
Things are moving in the right direction.
These are challenging times.
But thanks to the vaccine, we’re making progress.
But we’re not there yet.
So, as we go down the road to recovery, it’s vital everybody plays their part, follows the rules and when their call comes, get your jab.
The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 21 February 2021.
Matt Hancock cannot simply brush off this court ruling. He must commit to cleaning up the cronyism and waste that has marred government contracting during the pandemic.
We have tried to get answers about who is getting VIP treatment but the Conservatives are refusing to tell us. Now we know the Health Secretary acted unlawfully, these are no longer questions he can ignore.
The government must publish the outstanding contracts and details of the VIP lane as a first step to restoring public confidence.
The comments made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 18 February 2021.
I am acutely aware of the lasting and debilitating impact long COVID can have on people of all ages, irrespective of the extent of the initial symptoms.
Fatigue, headaches and breathlessness can affect people for months after their COVID-19 infection regardless of whether they required hospital admission initially.
In order to effectively help these individuals we need to better understand long COVID and identify therapeutics that can help recovery. This funding will kick-start 4 ambitious projects to do just that.
The statement made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 15 February 2021.
I would like to pay tribute to Dame Fiona Caldicott whose death has been announced by her family. Dame Fiona spent her entire career serving the NHS and medicine, working as a clinician in the early part of her career and latterly as the National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care.
In this role she was a phenomenal advocate for the public and was instrumental in making sure that the NHS treats the public’s health data with the respect it deserves. The fact that every NHS organisation in the country now has its own Caldicott Guardian to protect the confidentiality of people’s data is testament to all that Dame Fiona achieved.
I send my deepest condolences to Dame Fiona’s family, friends and colleagues.
The statement made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the House of Commons on 11 February 2021.
Mr Speaker, I come to the House today to set out our White Paper on the future of health and care. The past year has been the most challenging in the NHS’s proud 72-year history. The health and care system as a whole has risen in the face of great difficulties. Throughout, people have done incredible things and worked in novel and remarkable ways to deliver for patients, and we in this House salute them all—not just the nurse who may have had to care for two, three or four times as many patients as he would in normal times, and not just the surgeon who may have been called to treat patients beyond her normal specialism, but the managers across health and care who have come together in teams, as part of a health family, at local and national level; the public health experts, who have been needed more than ever before; and the local authority staff who have embraced change to deliver for their residents—and from all, a sense of teamwork that has been inspiring to see.
As a citizen, I care deeply for the whole health and care family, the values they stand for and the security they represent. They are there for us at the best of times, and they are there for us at the worst of times. As Health Secretary, I see it as my role sometimes to challenge but most of all to support the health and care family in their defining mission of improving the health of the nation and caring for those most in need.
I come before the House to present a White Paper based firmly on those values, which I believe are values that our whole nation holds dear. The White Paper is built on more than two years of work with the NHS, local councils and the public. At its heart, this White Paper enables greater integration, reduces bureaucracy and supports the way that the NHS and social care work when they work at their best—together. It strengthens accountability to this House and, crucially, it takes the lessons we have learned in this pandemic about how the system can rise to meet huge challenges and frames a legislative basis to support that effort. My job as Health Secretary is to make the system work for those who work in the system—to free up, to empower and to harness the mission-driven capability of team health and care. The goal of this White Paper is to allow that to happen.
Before turning to the core measures, I want to answer two questions that I know have been on people’s minds. First, are these changes needed? Even before the pandemic, it was clear that reform was needed to update the law, to improve how the NHS operates and to reduce bureaucracy. Local government and the NHS have told us that they want to work together to improve health outcomes for residents. Clinicians have told us that they want to do more than just treat conditions; they want to address the factors that determine people’s health and prevent illness in the first place. All parts of the system told us that they want to embrace modern technology, to innovate, to join up, to share data, to serve people and, ultimately, to be trusted to get on and do all that so that they can improve patient care and save lives. We have listened, and these changes reflect what our health and care family have been asking for, building on the NHS’s own long-term plan.
The second question is, why now, as we tackle the biggest public health emergency in modern history? The response to covid-19 has accelerated the pace of collaboration across health and social care, showing what we can do when we work together flexibly, adopting new technology focused on the needs of the patient and setting aside bureaucratic rules. The pandemic has also brought home the importance of preventing ill health in the first place by tackling obesity and taking steps such as fluoridation that will improve the health of the nation. The pandemic has made the changes in this White Paper more, not less, urgent, and it is our role in Parliament to make the legislative changes that are needed. There is no better time than now.
I turn to the measures in detail. The first set of measures promote integration between different parts of the health and care system and put the focus of health funding on the health of the population, not just the health of patients. Health and care have always been part of the same ecosystem. Given an ageing population with more complex needs, that has never been more true, and these proposals will make it easier for clinicians, carers and public health experts to achieve what they already work hard to do: operate seamlessly across health and care, without being split into artificial silos that keep them apart.
The new approach is based on the concept of population health. A statutory integrated care system will be responsible in each part of England for the funding to support the health of their area. They will not just provide for the treatments that are needed, but support people to stay healthy in the first place. In some parts of the country, ICSs are already showing the way, and they will be accountable for outcomes of the health of the population and be held to account by the Care Quality Commission. Our goal is to integrate decision-making at a local level between the NHS and local authorities as much as is practically possible, and ensure decisions about local health can be taken as locally as possible.
Next, we will use legislation to remove bureaucracy that makes sensible decision making harder, freeing up the system to innovate and to embrace technology as a better platform to support staff and patient care. Our proposals preserve the division between funding decisions and provision of care, which has been the cornerstone of efforts to ensure the best value for taxpayers for more than 30 years. However, we are setting out a more joined-up approach built on collaborative relationships, so that more strategic decisions can be taken to shape health and care for decades to come. At its heart, it is about population health, using the collective resources of the local system, the NHS, local authorities, the voluntary sector and others to improve the health of the area.
Finally, the White Paper will ensure a system that is accountable. Ministers have rightly always been accountable to this House for the performance of the NHS, and always will be. Clinical decisions should always be independent, but when the NHS is the public’s top domestic priority—over £140 billion of taxpayers’ money is spent on it each year—and when the quality of our healthcare matters to every single citizen and every one of our constituents, the NHS must be accountable to Ministers; Ministers accountable to Parliament; and Parliament accountable to the people we all serve. Medical matters are matters for Ministers. The White Paper provides a statutory basis for unified national leadership of the NHS, merging three bodies that legally oversee the NHS into one as NHS England. NHS England will have clinical and day-to-day operational independence, but the Secretary of State will be empowered to set direction for the NHS and intervene where necessary. This White Paper can give the public confidence that the system will truly work together to respond to their needs.
These legislative measures support reforms already under way in the NHS, and should be seen in the context of those broader reforms. They are by no means the full extent of our ambition for the nation’s health. As we continue to tackle this pandemic, we will also bring forward changes in social care, public health, and mental health services. We are committed to the reform of adult social care, and will bring forward proposals this year. The public health interventions outlined in this White Paper sit alongside our proposals to strengthen the public health system, including the creation of the National Institute for Health Protection, and last month we committed in our mental health White Paper to bringing forward legislation to update the Mental Health Act 1983 for the 21st century.
This landmark White Paper builds on what colleagues in health and care have told us, and we will continue that engagement in the weeks ahead, but it builds on more than that: it builds on this party’s commitment to the NHS from the very beginning. Eagle-eyed visitors to my office in Victoria Street will have noticed the portrait of Sir Henry Willink, who published from this Dispatch Box in 1944 the White Paper that set out plans for a National Health Service, which was later implemented by post-war Governments.
Throughout its proud 72-year history, successive Governments have believed in our health and social care system and strengthened it for their times. I believe the NHS is the finest health service in the world. I believe in the values that underpin it: that we all share responsibility for the health of one another. Its extraordinary feats this past year are unsurpassed even in its own proud history. Once again, we must support the NHS and the whole health and care system with a legislative framework that is fit for our times and fit for the future. We need a more integrated, more innovative and more responsive system, harnessing the best of modern technology and supporting the vocation and dedication of those who work in it. This White Paper is the next step in that noble endeavour, and I commend this statement to the House.