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Vol. 808 Wednesday No. 150 25 November 2020 PARLIAMENTARYDEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDEROFBUSINESS Questions Covid-19: Vaccines and Medical Equipment..................................................................233 Wales: Customs Sites......................................................................................................236 Nuclear Weapons............................................................................................................239 Covid-19: Vaccination Prioritisation ..............................................................................243 International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act 2015 Private Notice Question ..................................................................................................246 DHSC Answers to Written Questions Commons Urgent Question..............................................................................................251 Leaseholders and Cladding Commons Urgent Question..............................................................................................255 United Kingdom Internal Market Bill Report (3rd Day)............................................................................................................258 Sport Sector: Financial Support Statement........................................................................................................................348 Grand Committee Nutrition (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 Considered in Grand Committee...................................................................................GC 1 Coronavirus Act 2020 (Expiry of Mental Health Provisions) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 Considered in Grand Committee...................................................................................GC 8 European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (Relevant Court) (Retained EU Case Law) Regulations 2020 Considered in Grand Committee.................................................................................GC 24 Business and Planning Act 2020 (London Spatial Development Strategy) (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 Considered in Grand Committee ................................................................................GC 34 Lords wishing to be supplied with these Daily Reports should give notice to this effect to the Printed Paper Office. No proofs of Daily Reports are provided. Corrections for the bound volume which Lords wish to suggest to the report of their speeches should be clearly indicated in a copy of the Daily Report, which, with the column numbers concerned shown on the front cover, should be sent to the Editor of Debates, House of Lords, within 14 days of the date of the Daily Report. This issue of the Official Report is also available on the Internet at https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2020-11-25 In Hybrid sittings, [V] after a Member’s name indicates that they contributed by video call. The following abbreviations are used to show a Member’s party affiliation: Abbreviation Party/Group CB Cross Bench Con Conservative DUP Democratic Unionist Party GP Green Party Ind Lab Independent Labour Ind LD Independent Liberal Democrat Ind SD Independent Social Democrat Ind UU Independent Ulster Unionist Lab Labour Lab Co-op Labour and Co-operative Party LD Liberal Democrat LD Ind Liberal Democrat Independent Non-afl Non-affiliated PC Plaid Cymru UKIP UK Independence Party UUP Ulster Unionist Party No party affiliation is given for Members serving the House in a formal capacity, the Lords spiritual, Members on leave of absence or Members who are otherwise disqualified from sitting in the House. © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2020, this publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 233 Arrangement of Business [25 NOVEMBER 2020] Covid-19: Vaccines 234 House of Lords scheme is an emphatically impactful scheme. Britain has taken a leadership role in it, and I thank all those Wednesday 25 November 2020 involved in its development. The House met in a hybrid proceeding. Lord Mendelsohn (Lab) [V]: My Lords, it is essential Noon that those at economic and social disadvantage be given proper access to a functioning distribution strategy. Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of St Albans. Can the Minister reassure the 200,000 people with blood cancer in the “extremely vulnerable”classification that they can rely on proper evaluation of the suitability Arrangement of Business of vaccines, treatments and equipment for their distinctive Announcement condition, and provide some insight into how construction of the prioritisation list will be undertaken to address 12.07 pm the acute problem those in such circumstances face? In The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler): My Lords, the this regard, would the Minister be prepared to meet Hybrid Sitting of the House will now begin. Some with representatives of Blood Cancer UK to take Members are here in the Chamber, respecting social these matters forward? distancing, others are participating remotely, but all Members will be treated equally. Oral Questions will Lord Bethell (Con): The noble Lord raises an important now commence. Please can those asking supplementary point about those with blood cancer. In fact, many questions keep them sensibly short and confined to who are in the “extremely vulnerable” group have just two points. I ask that Ministers’ answers also conditions that may or may not be affected by the be brief. vaccine. Weare working extremely hard to accommodate their particular needs. The JCVI has an extremely Covid-19: Vaccines and Medical thoughtful prioritisation process. I would be happy to Equipment meet the group the noble Lord describes. Question Lord Dodds of Duncairn (DUP): I warmly welcome 12.08 pm the agreement that was reached yesterday between Her Majesty’s Government and the three devolved Asked by Baroness Goudie Governments on Christmas household arrangements. To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps That is a good example of working together across the they are taking to ensure equitable access (1) to United Kingdom. I press the Government to continue vaccines, and (2) to medical equipment, to address that approach with the rollout of vaccines across the the Covid-19 pandemic. United Kingdom. Nothing would be worse than to have one area or region ahead of another when it TheParliamentaryUnder-Secretaryof State,Department comes to vaccinating clinical staff, care workers and of Health and Social Care (Lord Bethell) (Con): My vulnerable people. Lords, the UK is at the forefront of efforts to drive global collaboration on the development of new vaccines Lord Bethell (Con): I entirely endorse the sentiment and has committed to procuring a Covid-19 vaccine the noble Lord expresses. I offer my profound thanks for the UK, the Crown dependencies and the overseas to the devolved authorities for the immense spirit of territories.Wearecollaboratingwithinternationalpartners collaboration which has characterised the response to on vaccine development, manufacturing scale-up and the pandemic. Often, it would seem from the headlines future distribution. The NHS has allocated and assigned that the nations are at odds with each other; that is not more than 28,000 items of critical care equipment my experience. The Christmas negotiations he cites acrosstheUKandCrowndependenciesandtheremainder are a very good example of that, and I hope the is available for allocation across England according to vaccination arrangements will be the finest moment. NHS regions, based on future need. Lord Scriven (LD): My Lords, on 25 September the Baroness Goudie (Lab) [V]: My Lords, equitable JCVI reported the serious risk of disease and mortality access to vaccines has a number of dimensions and all from Covid according to deprivation and ethnicity. must be secured across the world and in the UK. The These issues have to be taken into consideration in the Covid-19 pandemic respects no lines: if we neglect the vaccination programme, so why does the present list of developing world, we neglect ourselves. A lack of priorities for the vaccine ignore those factors completely? global access will hamper global health and development. Inequitable access would impede the unity of the Lord Bethell (Con): My Lords, the noble Lord is United Kingdom. entirely right that deprivation and ethnicity are key considerations in the morbidity of Covid; we are all Lord Bethell (Con): The UK has pledged more than acutely aware of them. The JCVI has looked extremely £1 billion in aid to counter health, humanitarian and closely at a variety of different models for prioritising economic risks,including £829 million on the development vaccination. Prioritisation based largely on age gives and delivery of vaccines. I thank all those involved in the most accurate and thoughtful prioritisation of the the COVAX Facility, a multinational mechanism vaccine and is also simple to understand and deliver. administered by Gavi which pools funding. The COVAX That is why it has gone down that route. 235 Covid-19: Vaccines [LORDS] Wales: Customs Sites 236 Lord Dobbs (Con) [V]: My Lords, I congratulate partners, including the United States, on issues such as AstraZeneca and Oxford University on their triumph the vaccine. We are grateful to Gavi, which is doing a in developing this vaccine. I hope that my noble friend terrific job at buying the vaccine; it is being characterised agrees that without the exceptional input