Chief Scientific Adviser says home-working should continue

Sarah Knapton

WORKING from home should remain in place, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser has indicated.

In a lengthy session before the House of Commons science and technology select committee, Sir Patrick Vallance appeared to signal a growing divide between scientists and Downing Street on health issues, including home-working, face masks and lockdown.

Sir Patrick said face masks could be “problematic” if used for long periods, indicated that Sage advised the Government to lock down earlier and said home-working should continue.

His comments come after the Government announced plans to introduce facemask rules and is expected to change guidance on working from home.

But Sir Patrick indicated that it was too soon for a mass return.

“We’re still at a time when distancing measures are important,” he told MPS. “Of the various distancing measures, working from home for many companies remains a perfectly good option because it’s easy to do.

“A number of companies think it’s actually not detrimental to productivity. And in that situation, absolutely no reason I can see to change it.”

Giving evidence, Sir Patrick also said that the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had advised the Government to implement lockdown on March 16, but that the Prime Minister did not announce the measures until March 23.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, responded by commenting “Of course, March 16 is the day when I came to this House and said that all unnecessary social contact should cease. That is precisely when the lockdown was started and… it is unusual to be attacked for saying exactly the same as the chief scientific adviser.”

Sir Patrick also warned of problems with face masks ahead of new rules making shoppers wear protection from July 24. He removed his own face mask while giving evidence, saying it was not necessary when maintaining social distancing indoors.

Sir Patrick told MPS that masks had a “marginally positive” value in enclosed spaces where crowding could occur, but that “prolonged use indoors is very difficult and comes with all sorts of problems”.

“On balance they have a positive effect in terms of stopping people catching it from you and in certain environments. It remains an issue if you wear masks for very prolonged

periods – you tend to fiddle with your face, then it is a bit more tricky to see what the benefit is.”

Mr Johnson is expected to set out the next stages of the Government’s coronavirus response today.

He is likely to encourage more people to return to work and to use public transport, despite Sir Patrick’s comments yesterday, but could stop short of changing the official guidance that says people should work from home if they can.

A source said: “If the cases continue to fall we can move forward with returning life to something closer to normal. But he is likely to talk about the need for more local lockdowns if there are further local outbreaks.”

Key to avoiding another national lockdown will be a new target of having the capacity to carry out 500,000 antigen tests per day – the tests that determine if someone currently has the virus.

It would enable all 360,000 of the people expected to have flu-like symptoms each day during the winter cold and flu season to be tested to see who needs to be isolated. It would also mean blanket testing of local populations could be carried out following outbreaks, regardless of whether people have symptoms or not.

The fact that Mr Johnson will set out plans that go into next spring is further evidence that the Government expects the virus to remain a problem well into next year, meaning measures such as social distancing and wearing face coverings could continue for many months to come.

The Prime Minister is concerned that the economy is recovering more slowly than had been hoped after most lockdown restrictions were lifted amid fears that people are still too anxious about commuting and working in proximity to colleagues.

Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England Governor, also said that unless workers returned, Britain will be “in a recession for a long time”.

The Governor is concerned about the impact of office workers staying away from their places of work, with the knock-on effects felt in shops and cafes which usually benefit from their trade.