New rules for debt letters will help people to better understand and manage their debts, reducing distress and supporting mental health
The letters borrowers receive from their lenders when they are seriously behind on repayments will be easier to understand and less intimidating as a result of new rules proposed by the Treasury today.
Default Notices are designed to give people who are falling behind on their debts fair warning before lenders take further action, but much of the formatting and content has not been updated in nearly 40 years.
Research from the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute and debt charities has shown that large amounts of capitalised text and legal terms can make the information contained in the letter hard to understand, which has the unintended consequence of confusing and distressing people. This has a negative impact on people’s mental health as well as their ability to effectively manage their debt.
As part of the government’s effort to support people in problem debt, it will legislate to change the language and presentation of information in debt letters. T
The new rules will make debt letters less threatening by restricting the amount of information that must be made prominent and requiring lenders to use bold or underlined text rather than capital letters. Lenders will also now be able to replace legal terms with more widely understood words and letters will clearly signpost people to the best sources of free debt advice.
John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said: Being behind on your credit repayments can be a really distressing experience which is made worse by a confusing and intimidating letter from your lender.
“As part of our effort to help to people struggling with their finances, it’s right that we look again at the legislation around these letters. These new rules will help to take the fear out of finance by ensuring that letters are easier to understand, less threatening, and empower people to take control of their finances.
“Some vital work has been done by charities, the industry and the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute and I am grateful for their support in tackling this important issue.”
Martin Lewis, Founder and Chair of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute charity, said: It’s no exaggeration to say that this change could save lives. Over 100,000 people in England alone attempt to take their lives each year due to debts, and four times that consider it.
“So we’re delighted the government has agreed to back this element of our campaign and change the default demand rules. The last thing people struggling with debt need is a bunch of thuggish letters dropping through the letterbox, in language they can’t understand, written in shouty capitals alongside threats of court action.
“And the timing is crucial, with millions of people facing debt and distress due to the pandemic, the sooner we end these out-of-date laws which force lenders to send intimidating letters the better. Today’s changes will make the most distressing debt letters much less intimidating, and crucially will also easily and calmly point people in serious debt to get the free, non-profit, debt advice they need.”
Eric Leenders, Managing Director, Personal Finance at UK Finance said: “The banking and finance industry understands the impact that debt can have on a customer’s wellbeing and has been working closely with government to help support customers, especially those in vulnerable circumstances.
“Lenders have to send Default Notices and these important changes announced today will ensure that customers receive more appropriate and supportive communications.”
These new rules are the latest in a wide package of support put in place to help people struggling with their finances, especially through coronavirus.
This includes £38 million of extra funding to debt advice providers this year and working with lenders and financial regulators to give people access to payment holidays on their mortgages and a range of consumer credit including credit cards, personal loans, motor finance and payday loans.
The government has also given the Financial Conduct Authority strong powers to protect consumers who borrow money, including cracking down on payday lenders, capping the cost of rent-to-own, and taking action on overdraft fees.
The new rules will be delivered through secondary legislation and are expected to come into force in December 2020. All lenders will then be required to make the changes within six months.
If you are experiencing debt problems, don’t ignore it and hope it will go away – it won’t; it will get worse. Seek help NOW.
Granton Information Centre can help. Telephone 0131 551 2459 or 552 0458 or email info@gic.org.uk
Finance Ministers from across the devolved nations have joined forces to call for flexibility, fairness and clarity from the UK Government.
For the first time, all three finance ministers – Kate Forbes, Rebecca Evans and Conor Murphy – today made co-ordinated statements in their respective legislatures.
The ministers are asking the UK Government for greater fiscal flexibility to manage the implications of coronavirus (COVID-19), meaningful involvement in the Spending Review to enable planning of budgets and an assurance that lost EU funding will be replaced in full and brought under the control of devolved administrations.
Finance Secretary Ms Forbes said: “Today the finance ministers of the devolved administrations are taking this unprecedented step to demonstrate the level of concern we share across the different nations of the UK, across different parties and across different legislatures.
“The importance of these issues cannot be overstated. They directly impact our ability to respond to COVID-19, to manage our nations’ finances and to support our communities and businesses during the pandemic.
“As representatives of our three nations, we are calling for the UK Government to provide the clarity, certainty and flexibility we require. These calls must not go unanswered.”
Ms Evans said: “I am focused on protecting the people of Wales from the worst impacts of the pandemic, while laying the foundations for recovery based on jobs, our young people and the environment.
“However, the Chancellor’s decision to cancel the UK autumn budget, alongside the uncertainty of the Spending Review and the complete lack of information on replacement EU funding, all contribute to making our task harder still.
“Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are today calling on the UK government to provide the fairness, flexibility and clarity we need to support and protect our communities and businesses.”
Speaking in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Mr Murphy said: “As Finance Ministers we represent over 10 million people and today we speak with one voice. We are calling for more fiscal flexibility to manage the implications of COVID-19.
“We are calling for proper involvement in the Spending Review so we can plan our Budgets. We are also calling for lost EU funding to be replaced in full, and brought under local control.”
Charity at the forefront of the Online Harms Bill urges UK Government to deliver on Boris Johnson’s determination for ambitious regulation
NSPCC sets 11th hour demand for Government: ‘Pass our tests for online regulation so children don’t continue to suffer avoidable harm and abuse’
Online sex crimes recorded against children in Scotland surpass five a day; as Ian Russell backs calls for Bill to also tackle suicide and self-harm posts
The NSPCC has laid out six tests the UK Government’s regulation of social media will be judged on if it is to achieve bold and lasting protections for children online.
The charity’s How to win the Wild West Web report, released today, sets out how the upcoming Online Harms Bill must set the global standard in protecting children on the web.
With crucial decisions just days away, the charity is urging the UK Government to ensure it levels the playing field for children, and new laws finally force tech firms to tackle the avoidable harm caused by their sites.
The call comes after figures released by Police Scotland show the number of online sex crimes against children recorded by the force during lockdown (April – June) reached the equivalent of more than five a day – a 20% increase on the same quarter last year.
The pandemic is likely to result in long-term changes to the online child abuse threat, with high-risk livestreaming and video chat becoming more popular. Changes to working patterns, meaning more offenders working at home, could result in a greater demand for sexual abuse images and increased opportunities for grooming.
The NSPCC has routinely highlighted the growing levels of abuse and harm caused to children on social media platforms, and believes the problem has been exacerbated by the fallout from coronavirus.
At the UK Government’s Hidden Harms summit earlier this year, the Prime Minister signalled his personal determination to legislate for ambitious regulation that successfully combats child abuse.
But the NSPCC is worried the landmark opportunity to change the landscape for children online could be missed if this is not translated by the UK Government into law.
The charity has released its six tests ahead of a full consultation response to the White Paper, amid concerns Ministers are wavering in their ambitions for robust regulation.
Regulation must:
Create an expansive, principles-based duty of care
Comprehensively tackle online sexual abuse
Put legal but harmful content on an equal footing with illegal material
Have robust transparency and investigatory powers
Hold industry to account with criminal and financial sanctions
Give civil society a legal voice for children with user advocacy arrangements
The charity believes, if done correctly, regulation could set a British model that leads the world in child protection online.
But in a stark warning, NSPCC CEO Peter Wanless, said: “Failing to pass any of the six tests will mean that rather than tech companies paying the cost of their inaction, future generations of children will pay with serious harm and sexual abuse that could have been stopped.
“The Prime Minister has the chance of a lifetime to change this by coming down on the side of children and families, with urgent regulation that is a bold and ambitious UK plan to truly change the landscape of online child protection.
“The Online Harms Bill must become a Government priority, with unwavering determination to take the opportunity to finally end the avoidable, serious harm children face online because of unaccountable tech firms.”
Mr Russell, who is due to be made an Honorary Member of Council for the NSPCC this week, said: “Today, I can’t help but wonder why it’s taking so long to introduce effective regulation to prevent the type of harmful social media posts we now know Molly saw, and liked, and saved in the months prior to her death.
“Tech self-regulation has failed and, as I know, it’s failed all too often at great personal cost. Now is the time to establish a regulator to protect those online by introducing proportionate legislation with effective financial and criminal sanctions.
“It is a necessary step forward in trying to reclaim the web for the good it can do and curtail the growing list of harms to be found online.”
The six tests the Government must pass if it is to create game-changing and lasting protections for children online are:
An expansive, principles-based duty of care; tech firms should have a legal responsibility to identify harms caused by their sites and deal with them, or face tough consequences for breaching regulation.
Tackling online sexual abuse; platforms must proactively and consistently tackle grooming and abuse images facilitated by dangerous design features. There must be no excuses. In the current state of play abuse images have been left online with the excuse that a child’s age cannot be proven, and images signposting abuse are not removed.
Tackling legal but harmful content; current Government proposals will see companies set their own rules on legal but harmful content. This is not good enough. The law must compel firms to respond to the harms caused by algorithms targeting damaging suicide and self-harm posts at children and avoid a two-tier system that prioritises tacking illegal content. The danger of harmful content should rightly be balanced against freedom of expression, but focus on the risk to children.
Transparency and investigation powers; tech firms currently only dish out information they want the public to see. The regulator must have the power to lift up the bonnet to investigate platforms and demand information from companies.
Criminal and financial sanctions; fines are vital but will be water off a duck’s back to some of the world’s wealthiest companies. Government can’t backslide on a named manager scheme that gives the regulator powers to prosecute rogue tech directors in UK law.
User advocacy arrangements; to level the playing field there must be strong civil society voice for children against well-resourced industry pressure. Big tech should be made to clean up the damage they have caused by funding user advocacy arrangements.
The NSPCC has been the leading voice for social media regulation and the charity set out detailed proposals for an Online Harms Bill last year, which informed much of the White Paper.
The Government has said the consultation response will be published in the autumn, with legislation expected to be delivered in the new year.
Today, the Edinburgh Poverty Commission launches it’s final report, A Just Capital: Actions to End Poverty in Edinburgh.
In this blog, EPC Chair Dr Jim McCormick (below) sets out the Commission’s journey, what we have learned along the way, and what we are calling for next:
Our Call to Action in Edinburgh comes after almost two years of conversations across the city: with people experiencing poverty, the community anchors that support them, keyworkers, employers, councillors, public service officials, housing providers and taxi drivers.
This rich process has uncovered new insights on how poverty is experienced in Scotland’s capital city – some arising directly from the COVID-19 pandemic – but more stemming from long-established struggles. We set out much of what we had learned about the immediate impact of Covid in our interim report in May.
Since then, we have maintained a clear focus on addressing the root causes of poverty as well as mitigating the consequences. We have discovered common ground among people with different experiences and in different sectors: that poverty in Edinburgh is real, damaging and costly – but also that, despite the powerful currents that threaten to drive us further off course, there is enough determination in the city to embrace the twin challenges of solving poverty and reducing carbon emissions over the next decade.
We have identified six broad areas for action and one cultural challenge that should serve as a lens through which each action should be approached.
Our first proposition is that Edinburgh will only succeed in creating a prosperous city without poverty if it creates the conditions for good jobs, genuinely affordable housing, income security and meaningful opportunities that drive justice and boost prospects – above all, in the city’s schools.
In addition, a much sharper focus on connections across the city is needed – via digital participation, cheaper transport and creating neighbourhoods that work. These actions combined will flow through to reduced harm to people’s physical and mental health. Emergency food support should not become locked in as a fourth emergency service but serve as a gateway to other support that will ease isolation and build human connection and kindness where it has been lacking.
The common challenge running through all of our work is a cultural one. We call on the City Council and its partners in all sectors to shift towards a relationship-based way of working which gets alongside people and communities in a holistic way.
The experience of poverty is too often one of stigma, being assessed, referred and passed from pillar to post – a separate service and multiple workers for each need. This radical move would see public servants authorised to put poverty prevention at the heart of their day-to-day work.
It will mean new relationships with citizens, employees and third sector partners. It will take visible leadership and longer-term financial commitment. There are green shoots in Edinburgh and examples from beyond Scotland demonstrating how better outcomes for families can be achieved and fewer resources locked into multiple complex systems.
We call this ‘the right support in the places we live and work’ to signal the importance of local access to multiple forms of support under one roof and within walking or pram-pushing distance – for example money advice and family support offered in nurseries, schools, GP surgeries and libraries.
None of these challenges are new. The City Council and its partners can point to significant investment in recent years to turn the tide on poverty. But we are not persuaded that actions have been consistent, at scale, sustained over time or have poverty reduction as part of their purpose.
While Edinburgh has many of the powers to go further, we are not persuaded that it can deliver on the required social housing expansion without a new funding deal with the Scottish Government.
This is urgently needed to boost investment and to help unlock the supply of land at a reasonable price. Almost one in three families in Edinburgh in poverty are pulled below the water line solely due to their housing costs.
That compares with one in eight households in poverty across Scotland. Solving the city’s housing crisis will go a long way to delivering on affordable housing ambitions for the country as a whole.
At the same time, the UK Government has a critical role in creating an income lifeline for families in and out of work, by maintaining the currently temporary increase in Universal Credit and Local Housing Allowance – both of which have become more significant as a result of damage to Edinburgh’s job market since March.
This Call to Action is not a list of recommendations or a menu of options. Reflecting our lives, each area is connected to the others. A plan for housing makes little sense in isolation from a plan for schools. Developing skills for employment will fall short if basic needs for secure, decent housing and food are neglected.
Nor is the ten-year horizon a get-out clause. We have worked on this basis because Scotland has committed to a significant cut in child poverty by 2030 and because many of the city’s existing plans run to the same schedule. We call on the City Council and the wider Edinburgh Partnership to set out its initial response by Christmas, as part of a first year of planning and early implementation.
And we are leaving a legacy through a new independent network, End Poverty Edinburgh. Led by Commission member Zoe Ferguson and our partners at Poverty Alliance, this brings together a core group of residents with first-hand experience of living on a low income and allies who want to be part of shaping the solutions.
Inspired by a similar approach in Edmonton (Alberta), they will stress test this report, challenge and add their own ideas, work with city partners to achieve progress but also hold the city to account on its response.
I want to thank everyone who contributed to our work in the hard graft of sharing painful stories, completing surveys and through organised and chance conversations.
Each member of the Commission gave their time, energy and ideas generously and for longer than originally asked. The quotes in this report reflect only a little of their brilliant contributions. Our work – and this report – was only possible due to the skill, care and patience brought by our secretariat team of Chris Adams, Nicola Elliott, Ciaran McDonald, and Gareth Dixon.
We have listened, been shocked and inspired – I hope we have done justice to what we have learned. Our Call to Action sets out something beyond hope: it is an expectation of what the city can and must now achieve.
Dr Jim McCormick, Chair of Edinburgh Poverty Commission
Read the final report here and the supplementary data and evidence paper here.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the UN General Assembly in New York yesterday
Never in the history of our species – not since the almighty felled the Tower of Babel – has the human race been so obsessed with one single topic of conversation. We have been following the same debates, researching the potential of the same drugs, and time and again we have been typing the same word into our search engines.
COVID-19, coronavirus, has united humanity as never before.
And yet the crisis has also been an extraordinary force for division. We have all been up against the same enemy. The same tiny opponent threatening everyone in much the same way, but members of the UN have still waged 193 separate campaigns, as if every country somehow contains a different species of human being. Across the world there has been an infinite variety of curfews and restrictions and closures, and we have fought in a spirit of sauve qui peut.
And the pace has been so urgent and the pressures so intense that each national government – democracy or otherwise – has decided entirely understandably to put the interests of its domestic population first. We have seen borders spring up between friends and allies, sometimes without consultation. We have seen the disruption of global supply chains with cheque book wars on airport tarmacs as nation has vied with nation for a supply of PPE.
And after nine months of fighting COVID-19, the very notion of the international community looks, frankly, pretty tattered. And we know that we simply can’t continue in this way. Unless we get our act together. Unless we unite and turn our fire against our common foe, we know that everyone will lose. The inevitable outcome would be to prolong this calamity and increase the risk of another.
Now is the time – therefore, here at what I devoutly hope will be the first and last ever Zoom UNGA – for humanity to reach across borders and repair these ugly rifts. Let’s heal the world – literally and metaphorically. And let’s begin with the truth, because as someone once said, the truth shall set you free.
And with nearly a million people dead, with colossal economic suffering already inflicted and more to come, there is a moral imperative for humanity to be honest and to reach a joint understanding of how the pandemic began, and how it was able to spread – Not because I want to blame any country or government, or to score points. I simply believe – as a former COVID patient – that we all have a right to know, so that we can collectively do our best to prevent a recurrence.
And so the UK supports the efforts of the World Health Organisation and of my friend, Tedros, to explore the aetiology of the disease, because however great the need for reform, the WHO, the World Health Organization, is still the one body that marshals humanity against the legions of disease.
That is why we in the UK – global Britain – are one of the biggest global funders of that organisation, contributing £340 million over the next four years, that’s an increase of 30 percent.
And as we now send our medical detectives to interview the witnesses and the suspects – bats, the pangolins, whoever – we should have enough humility to acknowledge that alarm bells were ringing before this calamity struck.
In the last 20 years, there have been eight outbreaks of a lethal virus, any of which could have escalated into a pandemic. Bill Gates sounded the alert in 2015, five years ago he gave that amazing prediction – almost every word of which has come true – and we responded as if to a persistent Microsoft error message by clicking “ok” and carrying on.
Humanity was caught napping. We have been scrabbling to catch up, and with agonising slowness we are making progress.
Epidemiologists at Oxford University identified the first treatment for COVID-19. They did trials with our national health service and found that a cheap medicine called dexamethasone reduces the risk of death by over a third for patients on ventilators. The UK immediately shared this discovery with the world, so that as many as 1.4 million lives could be saved in the next six months by this one, single advance.
And as I speak there are 100 potential vaccines that are trying to clear the hurdles of safety and efficacy, as if in a giant global steeplechase. We don’t know which may be successful. We do not know if any of them will be successful.
The Oxford vaccine is now in stage 3 of clinical trials, and in case of success AstraZeneca has already begun to manufacture millions of doses, in readiness for rapid distribution, and they have reached agreement with the Serum Institute of India to supply one billion doses to low and middle-income countries.
But it would be futile to treat the quest for a vaccine as a contest for narrow national advantage and immoral to seek a head start through obtaining research by underhand means. The health of every country depends on the whole world having access to a safe and effective vaccine, wherever a breakthrough might occur; and, the UK, we will do everything in our power to bring this about.
We are already the biggest single donor to the efforts of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness to find a vaccine. And it is precisely because we know that no-one is safe until everyone is safe, that I can announce that the UK will contribute up to £571 million to COVAX, a new initiative designed to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine across the world. Of this sum, £500 million will be for developing countries to protect themselves.
The UK is already the biggest donor to Gavi, the global vaccine alliance. In June we helped to raise almost $9 billion to immunise another 300 million children against killer diseases, and Gavi also stands ready to help distribute a COVID-19 vaccine.
But even as we strive for a vaccine, we must never cut corners, slim down the trials or sacrifice safety to speed. Because it would be an absolute tragedy if in our eagerness, we were to boost the nutjobs – the anti vaxxers, dangerous obsessives who campaign against the whole concept of vaccination and who would risk further millions of lives.
General Assembly Hall
And now is the time above all to look ahead and think now about how to stop a pandemic from happening again. How can we stop another virus from coming along and again smashing that precious Ming vase of international cooperation? How can we avoid the mutual quarantines and the brutal Balkanisation of the world economy?
I don’t think there is any reason for fatalism: of course, the dangers can never be wholly eliminated, but human ingenuity and expertise can reduce the risk. Imagine how much suffering might have been avoided if we had already identified the pathogen that became COVID-19 while it was still confined to animals?
Suppose we had been able to reach immediately into a global medicine chest and take out a treatment? What if countries had been ready to join together from the outset to develop and trial a vaccine? And think how much strife would have been prevented if the necessary protocols – covering quarantine and data-sharing and PPE and so much else – had, so far as possible, been ready on the shelf for humanity to use?
So we in the UK we’re going to work with our friends, we’re going to use our G7 presidency next year to create a new global approach to health security based on a five point plan to protect humanity against another pandemic.
Our first aim should be to stop a new disease before it starts. About 60 percent of the pathogens circulating in the human population originated in animals and leapt from one species to the other in a “zoonotic” transmission. The world could seek to minimise the danger by forging a global network of zoonotic research hubs, charged with spotting dangerous animal pathogens that may cross the species barrier and infect human beings.
The UK is ready to harness its scientific expertise and cooperate to the fullest extent with our global partners to this end. Of the billions of pathogens, the great mass are thankfully incapable of vaulting the species barrier.
Once we discover the dangerous ones, our scientists could get to work on identifying their weaknesses and refining anti-viral treatments before they strike. We could open the research to every country and as we learn more, our scientists might begin to assemble an armoury of therapies – a global pharmacopoeia – ready to make the treatment for the next COVID-19.
Our second step should be to develop the manufacturing capacity for treatments and vaccines So that the whole of humanity can hold them like missiles in silos ready to zap the alien organisms before they can attack. But if that fails and a new disease jumps from animals to human beings and overcomes our armoury of therapies and begins to spread, then we need to know what’s going on as fast as possible.
So the third objective should be to design a global pandemic early warning system, based on a vast expansion of our ability to collect and analyse samples and distribute the findings, using health data-sharing agreements covering every country. As far as possible, we should aim to predict a pandemic almost as we forecast the weather to see the thunderstorm in the cloud no bigger than a man’s hand.
And if all our defences are breached, and we face another crisis, we should at least be able to rely on our fourth step, and have all the protocols ready for an emergency response, covering every relevant issue, along with the ability to devise new ones swiftly.
Never again must we wage 193 different campaigns against the same enemy. As with all crises, it is crucial not to learn the wrong lessons.
After the harrowing struggle to equip ourselves with enough ventilators – with countries scrabbling to improvise like the marooned astronauts of Apollo 13 – there is a global movement to onshore manufacturing. That is understandable.
Here in the UK we found ourselves unable to make gloves, aprons, enzymes which an extraordinary position for a country that was once the workshop of the world. We need to rediscover that latent gift and instinct, but it would be insane to ignore the insights of Adam Smith and David Ricardo.
We need secure supply chains – but we should still rely on the laws of comparative advantage and the invisible hand of the market. Many countries imposed export controls at the outset of the pandemic, about two thirds of which remain in force. Governments still target their trade barriers on exactly what we most need to combat the virus, with tariffs on disinfectant often exceeding 10 percent, and for soap tariffs for 30 percent.
So I would urge every country to take a fifth step and lift the export controls wherever possible – and agree not to revive them – and cancel any tariffs on the vital tools of our struggle: gloves, protective equipment, thermometers and other COVID-critical products. The UK will do this as soon as our new independent tariff regime comes into effect on 1st January and I hope others will do the same.
Though the world is still in the throes of this pandemic, all these steps are possible if we have the will. They are the right way forward for the world, and Britain is the right country to give that lead.
And we will do so in 2021, as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of this great United Nations in London in January, and through our G7 Presidency, and as we host the world’s climate change summit, COP26, in Glasgow next November.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an immense psychic shock to the human race. Global fears have been intensified by the immediacy of round the clock news and social media. We sometimes forget, we face a virus – a small package of nucleic acid that simply replicates. It is not even technically alive.
Tragic as its consequences have been, it has been nothing like as destructive as other plagues – let alone the influenza of a century ago. It is absurd, in many ways, outrageous that this microscopic enemy should have routed the unity of the human race.
COVID-19 has caused us to cease other vital work, and I’m afraid it made individual nations seem selfish and divided from each other. Every day people were openly encouraged to study a grisly reverse Olympic league table, and to take morbid and totally mistaken comfort in the greater sufferings of others.
We cannot go on like that, we cannot make these mistakes again. And here in the UK, the birthplace of Edward Jenner who pioneered the world’s first vaccine We are determined to do everything in our power to work with our friends across the UN, to heal those divisions and to heal the world.
A new walk-through coronavirus testing centre has opened in Edinburgh. The new facility is being provided by the UK Government as part of a UK-wide drive to continue to improve the accessibility of coronavirus testing for local communities.
The centre, in the Usher Hall, will offer pre-booked tests for those with coronavirus symptoms.
The new site is situated so as to be easily accessible without a car. Those being tested will be required to follow public health measures, including social distancing, not travelling by taxi or public transport, practising good personal hygiene and wearing a face covering throughout, including while travelling to and from the testing centre.
Anyone attending an appointment at a walk-through testing will be provided with guidance on getting to and from the test site safely, with additional support for vulnerable groups and people with disabilities.
Testing at the new site started yesterday at 2pm, with appointments to be made available every day.
The latest UK Government site is part of the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities created in British history, which now comprises 75 drive-through sites, 112 walk-through sites, 258 mobile units, home testing and satellite kits and network of Lighthouse laboratories.
Testing is available only for those with coronavirus symptoms – a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss or change to sense of smell or taste.
Anyone with one or more of these symptoms should book a test at NHS Inform or by calling 0800 028 2816. From the start of the pandemic, testing has been prioritised for the most vulnerable, including patients in clinical settings and care home residents, vital health and care staff and to manage outbreaks.
Anyone testing positive for the will be contacted by contact tracers to help them trace their contacts. This will help people to identify who they may have been in close contact with, protecting others from further transmission.
Close contacts of those testing positive will also hear from contact tracers, asking them to stay at home for 14 days to prevent them from unknowingly spreading the virus. They will be advised to also book at test if they develop symptoms.
Health Minister Lord Bethell said: We continue to expand testing to make sure that everyone with symptoms can get a test, with our new walk-in sites making it even easier no matter where you live.
“This new site forms part of our national testing network, which has the capacity to test more than a million people a week and is growing all the time.
“If you have symptoms of coronavirus, I urge you to book a test today and follow the advice of contact tracers if you are contacted to protect others around you and stop the spread of the virus.
“This is a national effort and we are proud to be working with a number of partners to turn this ambition into a reality and roll out additional capacity to where it is needed.”
Baroness Dido Harding, Interim Executive Chair of the National Institute for Health Protection, said: “Our new walk through sites offer communities better access to coronavirus testing, so everyone with symptoms can get a test. This new site is part of our ongoing work to expand testing across the UK to deliver 500,000 tests a day by the end of October.
“Please book a test if you have coronavirus symptoms: a new continuous cough, a high temperature and a loss or change in sense of smell or taste.
“Everybody should continue to think hands, face, space, and follow the advice of contact tracers if you are contacted – this is the only way we can return to a more normal way of life.”
UK Government minister for Scotland, Iain Stewart, said: “The UK Government is committed to helping all parts of the UK fight coronavirus. We are providing the bulk of covid testing in Scotland, and this new walk-through centre in Edinburgh comes on top of nine other testing sites across Scotland funded by the UK Government, as well as the Glasgow Lighthouse Lab.
“Testing will play a vital part over the coming months, helping to manage local outbreaks and protect livelihoods. This walk-through centre will help people in Edinburgh have easy access to a test in the city centre.
“We are pleased to be working with commercial partners and with Edinburgh’s iconic Usher Hall. These sites are not possible without the hard work of many people and I would like to thank everyone involved for their incredible efforts.”
The testing centre is being operated in partnership with Mitie and will self-administered tests.
Simon Venn, Chief Government & Strategy Officer, Mitie, said: “Our priority during the pandemic is to support the nation’s efforts to fight COVID-19 and help keep the country running.
“Testing is a critical part of the UK’s strategy to combat coronavirus and we’re proud to support the UK Government with this vital task. A big thank you to all the NHS staff, Mitie employees and other frontline heroes in Edinburgh, who are working tirelessly to keep us all safe.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has outlined his Winter Economy Plan at Westminster
Mr Speaker, Thank you for granting me permission to make this Statement to the House today.
Earlier this week the Prime Minister set out the next stage of the government’s health response to Coronavirus.
Today I want to explain the next phase of our planned economic response.
The House will be reassured to know I have been developing plans to protect jobs and the economy over the winter period.
Plans that seek to strike the finely-judged balance between managing the virus and protecting the jobs and livelihoods of millions. Mr Speaker,
I know people are anxious, and afraid, and exhausted, at the prospect of further restrictions on our economic and social freedoms.
I share those feelings, but there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic.
We are in a fundamentally different position than we were in March.
And we now know much more about this virus.
Public awareness of the risks, and how to mitigate them, is far greater.
And we have met our promise to give the NHS whatever it needs, with significant new funding for NHS capacity, for PPE, and, I can inform the House today, we have now provided over £12 billion for test and trace.
In economic terms, while our output remains well below where it was in February, we have seen three consecutive months of growth.
And millions of people have moved off the furlough and back to work.
But the resurgence of the virus, and the measures we need to take in response, pose a threat to this fragile economic recovery.
So our task now is to move to the next stage of our economic plan, nurturing the recovery by protecting jobs through the difficult winter months.
Mr Speaker, The underlying rationale for the next phase of economic support must be different to what came before.
The primary goal of our economic policy remains unchanged: to support people’s jobs.
But the way we achieve that must evolve.
Back in March, we hoped we were facing a temporary period of disruption.
In response, we provided one of the most generous and comprehensive economic plans anywhere in the world with £190 billion of support for people, businesses and public services, as we protected our economic capacity.
It is now clear, as the Prime Minister and our scientific advisers have said, for at least the next six months the virus and restrictions are going to be a fact of our lives.
Our economy is now likely to undergo a more permanent adjustment.
The sources of our economic growth and the kinds of jobs we create, will adapt and evolve to the new normal. And our plan needs to adapt and evolve in response.
Above all, we need to face up to the trade-offs and hard choices Coronavirus presents. And, Mr Speaker, there has been no harder choice than the decision to end the furlough scheme.
The furlough was the right policy at the time we introduced it.
It provided immediate, short-term protection for millions of jobs through a period of acute crisis.
But as the economy reopens it is fundamentally wrong to hold people in jobs that only exist inside the furlough.
We need to create new opportunities and allow the economy to move forward and that means supporting people to be in viable jobs which provide genuine security.
As I’ve said throughout this crisis, I cannot save every business. I cannot save every job. No Chancellor could.
But what we can and must do is deal with the real problems businesses and employees are facing now.
In March, the problem was that we ordered businesses to close.
In response, we paid people to stay at home and not work.
Today, the problem is different.
Many businesses are operating safely and viably, but they now face uncertainty and reduced demand over the winter months.
What those businesses need is support to bring people back to work and protect as many viable jobs as we can.
To do that, I am announcing today the new Jobs Support Scheme.
The government will directly support the wages of people in work giving businesses who face depressed demand the option of keeping employees in a job on shorter hours rather than making them redundant.
The Jobs Support Scheme is built on three principles.
First, it will support viable jobs.
To make sure of that, employees must work at least a third of their normal hours and be paid for that work, as normal, by their employer.
The government, together with employers, will then increase those people’s wages covering two-thirds of the pay they have lost by reducing their working hours.
And the employee will keep their job.
Second, we will target support at firms who need it the most.
All small and medium sized businesses are eligible.
But larger businesses, only when their turnover has fallen through the crisis.
Third, it will be open to employers across the United Kingdom, even if they have not previously used the furlough scheme.
The scheme will run for six months starting in November.
And employers retaining furloughed staff on shorter hours can claim both the Jobs Support Scheme and the Jobs Retention Bonus.
Mr Speaker,
Throughout this crisis, we have sought parity between employees and the self-employed providing more than £13 billion of support to over 2.6 million self-employed small businesses.
So I am extending the existing self-employed grant on similar terms and conditions as the new Jobs Support Scheme …
Mr Speaker,
These are radical interventions in the UK labour market; policies we have never tried in this country before.
Together with the Jobs Retention Bonus, the Kickstart scheme for young people, tens of billions of pounds of job creation schemes, new investment in training and apprenticeships, we are protecting millions of jobs and businesses.
Mr Speaker, If we want to protect jobs this winter, the second major challenge is helping businesses with cash flow.
Over the last six months, we’ve supported business with tens of billions of pounds of tax deferrals and generous, government-backed loans.
Those policies have been a lifeline.
But right now, businesses need every extra pound to protect jobs rather than repaying loans and tax deferrals.
So I’m taking four further steps today to make that happen.
First, Bounce Back Loans have given over a million small businesses a £38 billion boost to survive this pandemic. To give those businesses more time and greater flexibility to repay their loans, we are introducing Pay As You Grow.
This means:
loans can now be extended from six to ten years – nearly halving the average monthly repayment
businesses who are struggling can now choose to make interest-only payments
and, anyone in real trouble can apply to suspend repayments altogether for up to six months
No business taking up Pay As You Grow will see their credit rating affected as a result.
Second, I am also changing the terms of our other loan schemes.
More than 60,000 Small and Medium sized businesses have now taken out Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans.
To help them, I plan to extend the government guarantee on these loans for up to ten years, making it easier for lenders to give people more time to repay.
I am also extending the deadline of all our loan schemes to the end of the year. And we are starting work on a new, successor loan programme, set to begin in January.
Third, I want to give businesses more time and flexibility over their deferred tax bills.
Nearly half a million businesses deferred more than £30 billion of VAT this year.
On current plans, those payments fall due in March.
Instead, I will allow businesses to spread that VAT bill over 11 smaller repayments, with no interest to pay.
And any of the millions of self-assessed income taxpayers who need extra help, can also now extend their outstanding tax bill over 12 months from next January.
The final step I’m taking today will support two of the most affected sectors: hospitality and tourism.
On current plans, their VAT rates will increase from 5% back to the standard rate of 20% on January the 13th.
So to support more than 150,000 businesses and help protect 2.4 million jobs through the winter I am announcing today that we are cancelling the planned increase and will keep the lower 5% VAT rate until March 31st next year.
Mr Speaker, Today’s measures mark an important evolution in our approach.
Our lives can no longer be put on hold.
Since May, we have taken steps to liberate our economy and society.
We did these things because life means more than simply existing.
We find meaning and hope through our friends and family, through our work, through our community.
People were not wrong for wanting that meaning, for striving towards normality, and nor was the government wrong to want this for them.
I said in the summer that we must endure and live with the uncertainty of the moment.
This means learning our new limits as we go.
Because the truth is the responsibility for defeating Coronavirus cannot be held by government alone.
It is a collective responsibility, shared by all.
Because the cost is paid by all.
We have so often spoken about this virus in terms of lives lost.
But the price our country is paying is wider than that.
The government has done much to mitigate the effects of the awful trade-offs between health, education and employment.
And as we think about the next few weeks and months, we need to bear all of those costs in mind.
As such, it would be dishonest to say there is now some risk-free solution.
Or that we can mandate behaviour to such an extent we lose any sense of personal responsibility.
What was true at the beginning of this crisis remains true now.
It’s on all of us.
And we must learn to live with it and live without fear.
Scotland’s GDP increased by 6.8% in July, according to statistics announced today by the Chief Statistician. The increase in the latest month follows revised estimates of 6.7% growth in June and 3.1% May, and falls of 20.1% in April and 4.9% in March.
Although GDP has increased for the last three months, it remains 10.7% below the level in February, prior to the direct impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In July there has been further growth in the three main sectors of the economy. Output in the Services sector is estimated to have increased by 5.5% compared to June, output in the Production sector increased by 8.6%, and Construction sector output is estimated to have increased by 23.4%.
Commenting on the publication of Scottish July GDP figures yesterday, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said: “As the Prime Minister said last night, the struggle against covid is the single biggest crisis the world has faced in our lifetimes.
“The UK Government is focussed on stopping the spread of coronavirus and keeping people safe, while doing everything we can to protect the economy.
“Through the furlough and self-employed schemes, we directly supported more than 930,000 jobs in Scotland, a third of the workforce.
“Now, the Chancellor’s comprehensive Plan for Jobs is bringing in the Job Retention Bonus, creating new jobs for young people through the kick start scheme, doubling the number of work coaches, and are supporting jobs in the tourism and hospitality sectors through a VAT cut.”
Background points:
The UK Government has directly supported more than 930,000 jobs in Scotland, a third of the workforce through the furlough and self-employed schemes.
Over 1.8 million jobs in the hospitality sector have been supported through the Eat Out to Help Out scheme with more than 6.3 million meals eaten in Scotland.
The UK Government has loaned more than £2.3 billion to 65,000 Scottish businesses.
An additional £6.5 billion in Barnett Consequentials has been provided by the UK Government to the Scottish Government since March 2020.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to make an announcement on a new emergency employment scheme to replace the current furlough arrangements later today.
Scale and urgency of the situation demands joint working to find solutions
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for urgent four nation talks to continue to drive coronavirus (COVID-19) transmission to the lowest possible level.
Acting quickly and decisively is essential, said the First Minister, pointing to scientific opinion that bringing the virus back under control will require measures beyond those which any of the four nations have so far announced.
Last night’s letter also highlights the fact that the ability of the Scottish Government and other devolved administrations to take action is curtailed by a lack of financial levers to deliver economic support, for example to the hospitality sector.
The First Minister said four-nation talks should consider three inter-related questions:
Based on the most recent data, what further actions might be necessary and is it possible to reach early four nations agreement on introducing them?
Given that further restrictions will inevitably have an economic impact, what support is required for affected sectors?
If it is not possible to reach a four nations agreement on further restrictions with associated support, what arrangements can be put in place to ensure that devolved administrations are not constrained in making what they judge to be essential public health decisions because they lack the financial flexibility to provide support to affected sectors or individuals?
Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the nation on coronavirus
Good evening, the struggle against covid is the single biggest crisis the world has faced in my lifetime.
In less than a year this disease has killed almost a million people, and caused havoc to economies everywhere.
Here in the UK we mourn every person we have lost, and we grieve with their families.
And yet I am more certain than ever that this is a struggle that humanity will win, and we in this country will win – and to achieve what we must I want to talk to you directly tonight about the choices that we face – none of them easy – and why we must take action now.
I know that we can succeed because we have succeeded before.
When the sickness took hold in this country in March, we pulled together in a spirit of national sacrifice and community. We followed the guidance to the letter. We stayed at home, protected the NHS, and saved thousands of lives.
And for months with those disciplines of social distancing we have kept that virus at bay.
But we have to acknowledge this this is a great and freedom-loving country; and while the vast majority have complied with the rules there have been too many breaches – too many opportunities for our invisible enemy to slip through undetected.
The virus has started to spread again in an exponential way. Infections are up, hospital admissions are climbing.
We can see what is happening in France and Spain, and we know, alas, that this virus is no less fatal than it was in the spring, and that the vast majority of our people are no less susceptible, and the iron laws of geometrical progression are shouting at us from the graphs that we risk many more deaths, many more families losing loved ones before their time; and I know that faced with that risk the British people will want their government to continue to fight to protect them, you, and that is what we are doing, night and day.
And yet the single greatest weapon we bring to this fight is the common sense of the people themselves – the joint resolve of this country to work together to suppress covid now.
So today I set out a package of tougher measures in England – early closing for pubs, bars; table service only; closing businesses that are not covid secure; expanding the use of face coverings, and new fines for those that fail to comply; and once again asking office workers to work from home if they can while enforcing the rule of six indoors and outdoors – a tougher package of national measures combined with the potential for tougher local restrictions for areas already in lockdown.
I know that this approach – robust but proportionate – already carries the support of all the main parties in parliament.
After discussion with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations, I believe this broad approach is shared across the whole UK. And to those who say we don’t need this stuff, and we should leave people to take their own risks, I say these risks are not our own.
The tragic reality of having covid is that your mild cough can be someone else’s death knell.
And as for the suggestion that we should simply lock up the elderly and the vulnerable – with all the suffering that would entail – I must tell you that this is just not realistic, because if you let the virus rip through the rest of the population it would inevitably find its way through to the elderly as well, and in much greater numbers.
That’s why we need to suppress the virus now, and as for that minority who may continue to flout the rules, we will enforce those rules with tougher penalties and fines of up to £10,000. We will put more police out on the streets and use the army to backfill if necessary.
And of course I am deeply, spiritually reluctant to make any of these impositions, or infringe anyone’s freedom, but unless we take action the risk is that we will have to go for tougher measures later, when the deaths have already mounted and we have a huge caseload of infection such as we had in the spring.
If we let this virus get out of control now, it would mean that our NHS had no space – once again – to deal with cancer patients and millions of other non-covid medical needs.
And if we were forced into a new national lockdown, that would threaten not just jobs and livelihoods but the loving human contact on which we all depend.
It would mean renewed loneliness and confinement for the elderly and vulnerable, and ultimately it would threaten once again the education of our children. We must do all we can to avoid going down that road again.
But if people don’t follow the rules we have set out, then we must reserve the right to go further. We must take action now because a stitch in time saves nine; and this way we can keep people in work, we can keep our shops and our schools open, and we can keep our country moving forward while we work together to suppress the virus.
That is our strategy, and if we can follow this package together, then I know we can succeed because in so many ways we are better prepared than before. We have the PPE, we have the beds, we have the Nightingales, we have new medicines – pioneered in this country – that can help save lives.
And though our doctors and our medical advisers are rightly worried about the data now, and the risks over winter, they are unanimous that things will be far better by the spring, when we have not only the hope of a vaccine, but one day soon – and I must stress that we are not there yet – of mass testing so efficient that people will be able to be tested in minutes so they can do more of the things they love.
That’s the hope; that’s the dream. It’s hard, but it’s attainable, and we are working as hard as we can to get there.
But until we do, we must rely on our willingness to look out for each other, to protect each other. Never in our history has our collective destiny and our collective health depended so completely on our individual behaviour.
If we follow these simple rules together, we will get through this winter together. There are unquestionably difficult months to come.
And the fight against covid is by no means over. I have no doubt, however, that there are great days ahead.
But now is the time for us all to summon the discipline, and the resolve, and the spirit of togetherness that will carry us through.
Coronavirus (COVID-19): What has changed?
The UK Government has today announced further national measures to address rising cases of coronavirus in England.
It is critical that everybody observes the following key behaviours:
HANDS – Wash your hands regularly and for at least 20 seconds.
FACE – Cover your face in enclosed spaces, especially where social distancing may be difficult and where you will come into contact with people you do not normally meet.
SPACE – Stay 2 metres apart where possible, or 1 metre with extra precautions in place.
Face Coverings
Customers in private hire vehicles and taxis must wear face coverings (from 23 September).
Customers in hospitality venues must wear face coverings, except when seated at a table to eat or drink. Staff in hospitality and retail will now also be required to wear face coverings (from 24 September).
People who are already exempt from the existing face covering obligations, such as because of an underlying health condition, will continue to be exempt from these new obligations.
Guidance stating that face coverings and visors should be worn in close contact services will now become law. (from 24 September)
Staff working on public transport and taxi drivers will continue to be advised to wear face coverings.
Working from home
To help contain the virus, office workers who can work effectively from home should do so over the winter. Where an employer, in consultation with their employee, judges an employee can carry out their normal duties from home they should do so. Public sector employees working in essential services, including education settings, should continue to go into work where necessary. Anyone else who cannot work from home should go to their place of work. The risk of transmission can be substantially reduced if COVID-19 secure guidelines are followed closely. Extra consideration should be given to those people at higher risk.
Businesses
Businesses selling food or drink (including cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants), social clubs, casinos, bowling alleys, amusement arcades (and other indoor leisure centres or facilities), funfairs, theme parks, and adventure parks and activities, and bingo halls, must be closed between 10pm and 5am. This will include take-aways but delivery services can continue after 10pm. (from 24 September)
In licensed premises, food and drink must be ordered from, and served at, a table.
Customers must eat and drink at a table in any premises selling food and drink to consume indoors, on site. (from 24 September)
Businesses will need to display the official NHS QR code posters so that customers can ‘check-in’ at different premises using this option as an alternative to providing their contact details once the app is rolled out nationally. (from 24 September)
Businesses and organisations will face stricter rules to make their premises COVID Secure (from 28 September).
A wider range of leisure and entertainment venues, services provided in community centres, and close contact services will be subject to the COVID-19 Secure requirements in law and fines of up to £10,000 for repeated breaches.
Employers must not knowingly require or encourage someone who is being required to self-isolate to come to work.
Businesses must remind people to wear face coverings where mandated.
Meeting people safely
Support groups must be limited to a maximum of 15 people (from 24 September)
Indoor organised sport for over 18s will no longer be exempt from the rule of six. There is an exemption for indoor organised team sports for disabled people. (From 24 September)
There will be a new exemption in those areas of local intervention where household mixing is not allowed to permit friends and family to provide informal childcare for children under 14. (from 24 September)
Weddings and civil partnership ceremonies and receptions will be restricted to a maximum of 15 people (down from 30). Other significant standalone life events will be subject to the ‘rule of six’ limits, except funerals (from 28 September).
Government has announced an initial £60 million to support additional enforcement activity by local authorities and the police, in addition to funding that has already been awarded.
The spread of the virus is also affecting our ability to reopen business conferences, exhibition halls and large sporting events, so we will not be able to do this from 1 October.
The government’s expectation is the measures described above will need to remain in place until March.
These measures apply to England – but there may be different rules if you live in an area under local lockdown: and you should check local lockdown rules. If you are in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, different rules may apply.
