(Lab): My Lords, I
refer the House to my entry in the register of interests in
relation to the National Education Union. Speaking
in another place on 13 May, the Secretary of State said he was
happy to share all advice received from SAGE. The National
Education Unionhas analysed the SAGE evidence and papers
available on GOV.UK. Most of the evidence explicitly relating to
children and education—80% of it; nine out of 11 papers—is
unpublished. SAGE has not published any evidence for over a week,
at a time when critical decisions are being taken, and there is no
record of SAGE papers for the last month, published or unpublished.
Will the Minister urge the Government to expedite the publication
of all scientific advice and evidence, in particular relating to
“test, track, trace and isolate”, to try to build confidence among
the public, parents and the education workforce in how schools
could open to more children and students safely, bearing in mind
that, as she said, schools are generally open for vulnerable
children and the children of key workers and that teachers not in
schools are at present teaching their pupils both online and
through a variety of means?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education and Department for International Trade () (Con): My Lords, the
Secretary of State outlined that the evidence will be published.
As I have said, the latest updates from SAGE have been published;
the latest was on 5 May. We are committed to transparency and
enabling access to the evidence on which we rely. On that
evidence, Public Health England’s guidance to us is that there
can be a hierarchy of controls in schools, beginning with nobody
symptomatic being in schools. Once those controls are in place,
we can substantially reduce the risk of transmission in education
settings.
