Number 10 backtracks on pledge for weekly reviews

THE GOVERNMENT appears to have reneged on a pledge which MPs understood to mean that reviews of the new coronavirus tiering system would be carried out weekly.

York Outer MP Julian Sturdy pushed Health Secretary Matt Hancock in the Commons on Thursday on whether reviews could be held more frequently than the fortnightly plan set out in law.

Addressing Mr Hancock, Mr Sturdy said: “When he talks about regular reviews, can I say a weekly review... would be much more desirable.”

Mr Hancock said: “We have a regular weekly session to go through all these. I am committing to regular reviews rather than weekly ones simply because we sometimes have to do it more than weekly, especially if cases are shooting up in an area.”

Mr Sturdy later said: “I was a little reassured by Matt Hancock’s answer to me that reviews to positions will be weekly, or even more regularly than that.”

But Downing Street yesterday said even though data would be looked at, reviews would still be every two weeks. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It will be reviewed every two weeks, and as you would expect we keep looking at the data continuously.”

He added: “I believe what the Health Secretary was referring to, as I say, was the fact that we continue to monitor the data continuously. There are a whole series of structures and meetings that are in place to do that. And they will continue to happen. But, as I said, it is set out in the Winter Covid Plan that the first review point will be on the 16th.”

The confusion comes as Boris Johnson faces a Commons showdown with his own MPs next week amid spreading anger on the Conservative benches over the latest system of tiered local controls.