Hancock backs police over fines
THE Health Secretary has backed more stringent enforcement of the lockdown by police and warned that “every flexibility” of the rules could prove fatal.
Matt Hancock said the majority of people are “following the rules” to stay at home, but he refused to criticise the police over complaints that some forces have been over-zealous in handing out fines.
Police tactics have come in for scrutiny after Derbyshire Police handed out £200 fines to two women who drove separately to go for a walk at a remote beauty spot situated around five miles from their homes.
The constabulary has since confirmed it will be reviewing all fixed penalty notices issued during the new national lockdown in England after it received clarification about the coronavirus regulations from the National Police Chiefs’ Council following the incident.
Mr Hancock, asked about Derbyshire Police’s approach, told Sky News: “I’m absolutely going to back the police because the challenge here is that every flex can be fatal. You might look at the rules and think ‘Well, it doesn’t matter too much if I just do this or do that’. But these rules are not there
as boundaries to be pushed, they are the limit to what people should be doing. “Every flexibility can be fatal.”
But John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said a review would be necessary after the Derbyshire incident and called for more clarity on the guidance from ministers.
England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has warned that the NHS is facing the “most dangerous situation” in living memory, and said the only way to prevent avoidable deaths is for the public to stay at home wherever possible.
Some experts have branded the current lockdown measures not strict enough, in the face of the more transmissible variant which has spread rapidly in many parts of the country – a position the Leader of the Opposition suggested he endorsed. Sir Keir Starmer told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show current rules “may not be tough enough”.
But Mr Hancock told Marr that he did not want to “speculate” on whether the Government would strengthen the measures.
In what will be seen as a boost to the prospect of lifting the restrictions, Mr Hancock said the Government is on course to hit its target of 13 million people vaccinated by mid-february. He said all adults are expected to be offered a jab by the autumn.
Thousands more people are expected to be given a Covid-19 jab as seven mass vaccination sites open across England today.
The centres will be joined later this week by hundreds more Gp-led and hospital services along with pharmacy-led pilot sites, taking the total to around 1,200. The seven new vaccine centres are: Ashton Gate in Bristol, Epsom racecourse in Surrey, the Excel Centre where London’s Nightingale hospital is based, Newcastle’s Centre for Life, the Manchester Tennis and Football Centre, Robertson House in Stevenage and Birmingham’s Millennium Point.