Coronavirus Act renewal vote

Last week, MPs voted to extend the Coronavirus Act for another six months. Many constituents have contacted me about this vote, so I want to share with you the reason why I feel the measures in the Act are still needed. 

The Coronavirus Act is a vital piece of legislation in our national response to the pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, the Coronavirus Act has played a key role in increasing NHS capacity, providing financial support to individuals and businesses, and ensured public services could continue to function. 

All the measures in the Act are temporary and proportionate to the threat we face.  

But MPs did vote to repeal provisions that are no longer needed. For example, Parliament revoked the power of Ministers to direct the temporary closure of educational institutions and providers. The regulations that allowed restrictions to be imposed upon potentially infectious persons have also been removed. 

But I believe that to repeal the Act in its entirety at this point would risk undermining essential support mechanisms we still need. 

Measures in the Act have allowed for the temporary registration of over 14,000 nurses and healthcare professionals, ensuring the NHS had the capacity to deal with the peak of the virus.

The Act continues to support the NHS in retaining emergency staff, ensure Statutory Sick Pay is available to support self-isolation and enables remote participation in court proceedings.

Since February, thanks to the great success of the vaccine roll-out, the Government has been able to carefully reopen the economy and lift more and more restrictions.

And thanks to the hard work of everyone here in Norwich and in the whole country, we were able to fully re-open all parts of our economy on July 19th. 

It has been great to see nightclubs and theatres operating again. I have met with business owners and workers locally to hear more about what the re-opening has meant to them. 

The removal of social distancing and all gathering limits has helped all of us to reconnect with much missed friends, family and work mates.  

But I voted to renew the main provisions in the Act, because the pandemic is sadly not over. 

While no-one wants to keep the temporary provisions in place any longer than absolutely necessary, Covid-19 infections are at their highest level since July.  The return of students to schools and universities and workers to workplaces after the summer holidays has also put further upward pressure on case numbers. 

The Government has clearly set out the plan for the difficult winter months ahead, and they will be hard. We know that respiratory viruses always surge in colder months. 

But we can all do our bit to help built up our defences against the spread of Covid-19 and protect everyone in our community. 

The vaccination booster programme and the flu vaccination programme are both really important, and I would urge anyone eligible to make sure they book their jabs.

We can also all follow the guidance and advice that we are all so familiar with now: staying at home if you feel unwell, washing your hands regularly, and making sure offices and other indoor spaces are well ventilated. 

Everyone can also order free lateral flow tests to take at home. Around 1 in 3 people with Covid-19 do not have symptoms, so regular testing helps to protect everyone in the community. The tests find cases in people who may have no symptoms, but are still infectious and can give the virus to others. 

You can order the free tests online here: https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests, or collect them from a pharmacy. 

We can all work together now to help reduce the spread of the virus. But as we have seen over the last 18 months, the course of the pandemic can be unpredictable. That is why the temporary measures in the Act are still needed, to ensure we can protect the NHS in the months ahead.