UK coronavirus: Labour attacks Gavin Williamson over ‘summer of chaos, incompetence and confusion’ — as it happened
Gavin Williamson, the education secretary for England, has said schools may want to introduce longer days or weekend lessons as they consider how to help pupils catch up for the education they have lost this year. In a statement to MPs, in response to a Tory backbencher who proposed extending the secondary school day by 30 minutes to help pupils make up for the education they had lost, Williamson said that that idea had merit for some pupils – but that it would be for individual schools to decide if they wanted to adopt it. He said:
As part of the advice that was worked up along with the Education Endowment Foundation, one of their key recommendations was looking at how you can extend the school day, how you can look at provisional weekends in order to support children who really do need that little bit of extra help in order for them to have a real impact in terms of their educational attainment.
All of these measures can have an enormously positive effect and that’s why we developed a £1bn Covid catch-up fund because schools then have the ability to take such action.
Labour’s Kate Green said Williamson was responsible for a “summer of chaos, incompetence and confusion that has caused enormous stress” to parents, pupils and teachers. But Williamson received very little criticism from Conservatives in the chamber, despite the fact that his U-turn over A level grades last month created abysmal headlines for the government.
That’s all from me for today.
Our coronavirus coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.
A Department of Health official has been in touch to explain the figure that Matt Hancock cited earlier (see 2.50pm) when he said that the most recent test and trace figures show that 84.3% of contacts were reached, where contact details were provided. He was referring to figures in annex table 7 in the most recent report.
This table shows that, of the close contacts identified of people testing positive for coronavirus, 75.5% of them were reached and told to self-isolate. But the chart also shows that no contact details were provided for some “close contacts”. Once these are excluded, the success rate rises to 84.3%.
The government has published its latest daily coronavirus death toll for the UK. A further three deaths have been recorded.
Coronavirus deaths Photograph: PHE
According to this chart, there have now been 41,504 UK coronavirus deaths, but this only counts people who have died within 28 days of testing positive. There are more than 10,000 more deaths that have been attributed to coronavirus, according to the ONS or other bodies, but are not included in this figure because the people who died were never tested.
Today’s dashboard also shows that 1,295 more people have tested positive. Daily case numbers have now been increasing significantly since early July. As my colleague Nicola Davis explains here, this increase is partly, but not wholly, explained by the fact that testing is increasing too.
Coronavirus case numbers Photograph: PHE
In the Commons Bob Blackman, a Conservative, asks if the government is considering extending the school day for half an hour to allow pupils to catch up with the schooling they’ve missed.
Williamson says that longer school hours, or even schooling at weekends, could benefit the children who need most help. But he implies that he will not be recommending this across the board. He says the government has a catch-up fund. But it will be for individual schools to decide what they do, he says.
Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons education committee, says his committee published a report in July saying next year’s exams should be delayed.
He says all pupils in school should be benchmarked, to help the decision as to whether exams should be delayed.
Williamson says the government will be doing this to identify the “learning gaps” that children have.
Williamson is responding to Green.
He says he is pleased Labour wants children back in school. He says Green’s predecessor, Rebecca Long-Bailey, was “more ambivalent” about this.
He says the government has already delivered a £1bn Covid catch-up fund. This will be spent on interventions that deliver results, he says.
As for delaying next year’s exams, he says he said earlier this year that he would be asking Ofqual to look at this. Labour has not made a submission to Ofqual on this matter, he says. So he says he welcomes the fact that Labour is now backing his position on this.
Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, is responding to Williamson now. She says there has been a “summer of chaos, incompetence and confusion that has caused enormous stress” to parents, pupils and teachers.
She says Labour wants pupils in schools.
She says Williamson was right to allow teacher-assessed grades to apply.
But this approach still creates problems, she says.
She asks Williamson to clarify when he was warned about the problems with the system.
How many pupils missed a place at their first choice university?
And how many universities are losing students because they are now going somewhere else?
Turning to school reopening, Green asks when schools will start to get the support they need to help pupils catch up.
She says she was glad to read that the government is considering delaying exams next summer. (See 9.48am.) But will plans for this be in place by the end of this month?
Williamson is now speaking about school opening.
He says pupils and parents should be assured they are returning to a safe environment.
He says whole-year groups will be kept separate. In addition, other measures are in place to protect health. And schools are being issued with PPE equipment, in case a pupil develops symptoms when they are on the premises.
Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, is making a statement to MPs.
He starts by addressing the exam results situation.
He says Ofqual put in place a system for allocated grades “that was believed to be fair and robust”. But too many of the results were unfair, he says. And that is why the rules were changed, and students were allowed to keep the grades assessed by their teachers.
Williamson repeats his apology to students. He says he is “deeply sorry” for what they went through.
He says some students will still be unhappy with their grades. And for some student, such as those who are home educated, there was not enough evidence available to allow them to have a grade. For this group, exams will be available.
He says universities have agreed to give places to students who have got their grades where possible. Where that is not possible, they will offered alternative courses or allowed to defer for a year.
He says Sally Collier, who was head of Ofqual, has decided that the next stage of the process should be overseen by someone else. He says he wishes her well.
Downing Street has released a further extract from what Boris Johnson told the cabinet at the start of their meeting this morning. He defended the various government policy changes announced over recent weeks and months (or “U-turns”, as they are normally called by the media) on the grounds that the government had to respond to changing circumstances.
Overall, the government had not been “blown off course”, he claimed. He said:
In the last few months we’ve been sailing into the teeth of a gale, no question.
And I am no great nautical expert but sometimes it is necessary to tack here and there in response to the facts as they change, in response to the wind’s change, but we have been going steadily in the direction, in the course we set out, and we have not been blown off that course.
And that is thanks to you, to the government, but it is overwhelming with thanks to the British people and the way they have come together, the way the whole country has come together to defeat the virus, so thank you all for everything that you have done.
And of course I think there is still going to be some turbulence ahead, and of course things are still going to be difficult on the economic front, and of course we still need to get this disease absolutely out of our systems, but I am absolutely confident that, if we continue in the way that we have, that there will be calmer days, brighter days and calmer seas ahead of us.
Last week we published a list of 11 coronavirus U-turns. Some of them could be justified on the grounds that the government was responding to changing circumstances (for example, the UK scientific advice on face coverings has changed over recent months) but many of these decisions (eg, school meal vouchers, the A-level algorithm) were simply cases of the government admitting that its initial decisions were wrong.
According to the Financial Times’ Jim Pickard, figures from Transport for London suggest Tube and bus use in London has increased by less than 10% compared with this time last week.
Jim Pickard (@PickardJE)
figures from @TfL from this morning show the extent to which workers have NOT returned en masse:
– Tube use down 72% on same day last year – Bus use down 53% on same day last year
– Tube use up 8% on same day last week – Bus use up 6% on same day last week
September 1, 2020
These figures undermine Boris Johnson’s claim earlier (see 11.20am) that “people are going back to the office in huge numbers”.
Waterloo station in London during rush hour this morning. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters
Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary who now chairs the Commons health committee, asks if the government intends to roll out regular weekly testing for NHS staff.
Hancock says he wants to deploy testing as widely as possible, following clinical advice.
Hancock is responding to Ashworth.
He says he “bows to no one” in his enthusiasm for mass testing. He says he pushed his neck out when he set the 100,000 tests per day target. Now the government needs to increase testing again, he says.
But he says he will only use tests that have been validated. Saliva tests are still being worked on, he says.
Turning to local testing, he says local lockdowns are working. And the government does publish the data used to justify them, he says.
He says councils are required to seek consensus with local elected officials, including MPs, before announcing local lockdowns. But he says in some cases it is not possible to reach a consensus.
On vaccines, he says MPs are at one in their “abhorrence” at the anti-vax movement. He says a vaccine will only be rolled out when it has been approved by regulators.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, is responding to Hancock.
He says the government’s test and trace system is now yet “world-beating”, as Boris Johnson promised. (See 3.26pm.)
He says Hancock now seems to support mass testing. When will weekly testing by introduced for all frontline NHS workers?
He asks when a rapid test will be introduced, and who will be able to get it first? And will a saliva test be rolled out?
He asks why Hancock ignored local council leaders, but followed the advice of the Tory MP Sir Graham Brady, chair of the backbench Conservative 1922 Committee, when he agreed to lift some restrictions in the north-west.
And he asks why Hancock thinks restructuring Public Health England now will help.
Ashworth ends by saying that the UK has suffered by the highest per capita death rate from coronavirus of any developed country in the world.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is now making a statement to MPs about coronavirus.
He says the number of deaths is now very low. The latest daily death toll recorded just two deaths, he says.
But he says that in France and Spain the number of cases is increasing “exponentially”. And he says hospital cases are going up too.
He says the government must remain vigilant. He summarises the steps it is taking.
It will be reminding people what they can do to stop the spread of the virus. An advertising campaign will remind people to wash their hands, cover their faces in certain places and socially distance. And people who are ill should get a test, he says.
He says testing and contact tracing continues. Some 60m tests have been carried out, he says.
He says the government is looking at new technology to improve testing.
More financial support is being made available, from today, for people who need to self-isolate, he says.
And he says that work is continuing on a vaccine. And he says the government will bring forward plans so that, when a vaccine does become available, a wider range of medical personnel are allowed to vaccinate people.
During a wide-ranging statement on the Scottish government’s programme for 2020-21, that includes a commitment to youth training, the expansion of digital access for poorer households, green investment and a review of adult social care to examine options for the creation a National Care Service investment, Nicola Sturgeon said that, if she was governing an independent country and not having to deal with the “self-sabotage” of Brexit, she could contemplate even more far-reaching plans, including “a migration system that welcomes talent at all levels and supports people to make Scotland their home” and a universal basic income.
She pledged that, by next spring, her government would publish a draft bill “setting out the proposed terms and timing of an independence referendum”, as well as the proposed question that people will be asked in that referendum. She added that at next May’s Holyrood elections – in which the SNP are already predicted to win a majority – “we will make the case for Scotland to become an independent country, and seek a clear endorsement of Scotland’s right to choose our own future”.
In a move welcomed by children’s campaigners, Sturgeon announced what she described as “one of the most ambitious pieces of legislation in the 20 year history of devolution”: the full and direct incorporation into Scots law of the United Nations convention on the rights of the child. She said:
This will mean public authorities – including the Scottish government – will be required by law to act in ways compatible with the convention’s requirements to recognise, respect and be accountable for the rights of children in what we do.
Sturgeon said that committing to the vision of a National Care Service would match the postwar National Health Service, and insisted that investment in youth training would ensure that COVID will not be the defining experience for this current generation of young people.
The full 139-page Scottish government programme for 2020-21 is here (pdf). And here is Sturgeon’s introduction.
Here is the full quote from Matt Hancock in the Commons earlier when he claimed that England’s test-and-trace system was now “in the top tranche” internationally. Hancock was responding to a question from the Conservative MP Jack Lopresti, who wanted to know how the country was doing by international standards. Hancock replied:
Well, of course, we learn the lessons and I talk to my international counterparts including in Germany and South Korea. Actually, compared to international systems … we are now absolutely in the top tranche and we’re constantly looking all around the world to how we can improve the operation of test and trace.
In May Boris Johnson promised that a “world-beating” test-and-trace system would be up and running by 1 June. A national system did launch in England before the start of June, but in its early days it was widely criticised and, as this Twitter thread explains, in some respects it is still performing badly. Johnson, though, has defended the “world-beating” tag on the grounds that “we are now testing more per head of population than virtually any other country in Europe”.
