Closing summary
We’re going to close this blog down now. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the day’s events.
- The education secretary finally backed Ofqual a day after declining to do so. Gavin Williamson bowed to pressure to back Sally Collier’s leadership of the beleaguered exams regulator for England after the exams fiasco.
- The exam results algorithm was unlawful, the shadow attorney general claimed. Charlie Falconer, who was attorney general under Tony Blair and is now a Labour frontbencher in the Lords, argued that ministers and Ofqual would have been aware of at least three breaches of the law in the standardisation formula used.
- About 15,000 pupils who were turned down by their first-choice university based on their algorithmic grades now meet the conditions of their offers. The figures from Ucas (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) show the scale of the problem now facing universities.
- Schools and colleges were told not to issue BTEC results to students tomorrow. In a last-minute U-turn, the exam board Pearson asking them not to publish any results for the vocational qualifications so they could recalculate the final grades.
- Support for Scottish independence has reached a record high of 55%, according to a poll. The results of the 2014 independence referendum were reversed, the polling company Panelbase found.
- Sheffield University halted proposals to cut salaries and promotions for staff due to financial concerns related to coronavirus. That came after the institution found that more students planned to go there than expected, boosted by the government lifting its cap on intake numbers.
- Aberdeen will stay under lockdown conditions after Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, defied calls to ease them. She said it was not yet safe to lift the restrictions that have been in place since the start of the month, despite the city council’s co-leaders calling for them to be lifted from Saturday.
- A senior government adviser accused ministers of passing on the blame for failures during the pandemic. Jeremy Farrar, a member of Sage and director of the Wellcome Trust, called for the government to change tack and “listen, learn, reform & invest in a public health”.
- Rail fares are set to rise again, despite the crisis caused by the pandemic. Fares will go up by another 1.6% in January, adding about £100 to the cost of many annual season tickets after an unexpected jump in inflation last month. Campaigners called on the government to abolish annual fare rises when passenger numbers have plummeted because of Covid-19.
- An official Covid-19 survey is to be expanded to test 150,000 people per fortnight in England, the health secretary has claimed. Matt Hancock, whose promises on testing have gone unfulfilled in the past, said the Office for National Statistics survey that currently tests about 28,000 people in that period will also collect data from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
That’s it from me. If you’d like to continue following our coronavirus coverage, my colleague Lucy Campbell is running our global live blog:
The shadow education secretary has condemned the unacceptable chaos she said has been caused by yet another last-minute U-turn on exam results. Kate Green has said:
For some young people to find out less than a day in advance that they will not be receiving their grades tomorrow is utterly disgraceful.
Gavin Williamson and the Department for Education should have had a grip of this situation days ago. It’s appalling that thousands of young people should face further confusion and uncertainty because of the government’s incompetence.
This repeated chaos is simply no way to run a country. The government must urgently set a clear deadline for every young person to receive their grades.
Thousands of pupils now have the grades for their first-choice university – Ucas
Approximately 15,000 A-level students who were originally rejected by their firm choice university will now meet the conditions of their offer, following the U-turn on grading, the body responsible for university admissions has said.
Ucas (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) said it had received the results from the four largest awarding bodies for the 160,000 students who received upgraded A-level grades in England.
Around 100,000 of those students were already placed at their first-choice university on results day last Thursday.
Of the remaining 60,000, around one in four (approximately 15,000) will now meet the A-level offer conditions of their original first-choice. Some 90% of these students made their original firm choice at a higher tariff institution. Clare Marchant, Ucas’ chief executive, said:
We have rapidly produced this initial analysis to provide the education sector with insight into the overall picture and to enable support to be directed quickly to the students that need it the most.
We are all focused on supporting the 15,000 students who now meet their conditions of entry and may want to make a different decision and take up a place at their original first-choice university.
Examiners in last-ditch scramble to recalculate grades
Schools and colleges have been told not to issue BTEC results to students tomorrow following a last-minute U-turn on grading.
On Wednesday – with less than 24 hours to go until results day – exam board Pearson wrote to schools and colleges asking them not to publish any results for the vocational qualifications so they could recalculate the final grades. A spokeswoman for Pearson said:
Following Ofqual’s announcement that A-level and GCSE students are to receive centre-assessed grades, we will be applying the same principles for students receiving BTEC results this summer.
We will be regrading BTECs to address concerns about unfairness in relation to A-levels and GCSEs and ensure no BTEC student is disadvantaged.
We know this could cause additional uncertainty for students and we are sorry about this. Our priority is to ensure fair outcomes for BTEC students and we will work around the clock to provide revised grades as soon as we can.
Forcing Oldham into a tighter lockdown would not only “cripple” the local economy but fuel racial tensions, the council’s deputy leader has warned the government.
Officials from the Cabinet Office toured Oldham on Wednesday, led by local politicians and health experts desperate to avoid a “Leicester-style” lockdown.
Arooj Shah, Oldham’s deputy leader, told the Guardian racism was on the increase the district after it was singled out as an infection hotspot three weeks ago, with the Pakistani community particularly badly hit.
For those who have prejudices it is a really handy excuse. That’s why the step the government takes cannot be a blunt tool of lockdown for places like Oldham. Not only will it cripple our economy but the social impact will be absolutely huge and the blame will lie at the door of the government.
Residents of Birmingham must pull together to tackle an “extremely concerning” rise in Covid-19 cases, the leader of the city’s council has said.
Cllr Ian Ward said the rise in cases was “not currently on the scale seen elsewhere in the country”. But he added that people in the city, many of whom had stories of tragedy relating to their family and friends since the onset of Covid-19, had to remain focussed.
We’ve all made sacrifices over the past five months to tackle its devastating impact, and that is what was helping bring the issue under control here in Birmingham.
Most people are still doing the right things – the basics such as handwashing, wearing face coverings in the appropriate places and keeping two metres apart wherever possible.
We all need to keep doing this. I understand that lockdown fatigue has inevitably set in for some and that the easing of restrictions means it is easy to take your eye off the ball.
But we have to remain focused. If we are forced to go back to the dark days of spring, it will be because we haven’t collectively done our bit for the greater good of the city.
A further lockdown could set the city’s “already-fragile” economy back, causing further job uncertainty, the council leader warned.
A local lockdown could also mean some of those freedoms and liberties that we have begun to enjoy again are ripped from our grasp.
Going into the next stage of restrictions will also probably mean an end to households meeting indoors, severely restricting our ability to socialise as we would like to.
There is a risk this could all happen again if we don’t push back against the rise in Birmingham’s coronavirus cases.
Ultimately, there is a role for everyone here. Now is the time to step up and all do our bit for Birmingham, like never before.
The revelation that Ofqual, not the education secretary, took the decision to scrap plans to calculate exam results using an algorithm is evidence of the government’s “stark incompetence”, the shadow universities minister Emma Hardy has said.
Parents and young people across the country who have been coping with the consequences of this government’s chaotic handling of results will be astonished that they cannot be clear about this. The government must build the trust of parents ahead of schools reopening, but this latest blunder will make that even harder.
The focus and priority for the secretary of state must be on students and not his own career.
The UK risks an exodus of talent from its creative sector, leading arts organisations and industry bodies have warned, as they call on the chancellor to extend financial support for freelancers until 2021.
Indoor live performances in England were given the green light from 15 August as part of the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. However, professional body the Incorporated Society of Musicians, and performing arts union Equity, fear venues will struggle to reopen because smaller audiences mean less profit from ticket sales.
They are asking for the Treasury’s self-employment income support scheme (SEISS), which in its second round will award individual grants of up to £6,570, to run until spring 2021 – far beyond its current cut-off date of 19 October.
The Brit School, UK Theatre, the Society of London Theatre, the Glyndebourne Tour Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra are among the high profile signatories to the letter sent to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak.
Dr Simon Hyde, the general secretary of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), which represents 296 leading private schools, has called for a public inquiry into the “shambles” of the 2020 exams, which were cancelled because of the pandemic.
It is vital that lessons are learnt to avoid making the same mistakes next year. We are worried about the effect of this mess on students taking their A-levels and GCSEs in 2021; they must return to school knowing that there is a sensible and ethical system in place if their exams have to be cancelled.
In particular, we need to understand why important decisions were taken once exams were cancelled to try and use statistics to predict every individual student’s grade in every subject, and how much emphasis was put on fairness for every young person.
There are fundamental questions about the trust put in teachers and how their centre assessed grades were used.
Ofqual’s exam results algorithm was unlawful, the shadow attorney general has said, as Gavin Williamson finally gave his backing to the beleaguered regulator.
Jessica Elgot and Richard Adams write that the education secretary, who has previously pointed the finger at Ofqual over the exams fiasco, issued a statement earlier saying he had full confidence in the regulator. He admitted it had ultimately been Ofqual’s decision to make U-turn on results produced by its algorithm in favour of teacher-assessed grades.
Meanwhile, Charlie Falconer, who was attorney general under Tony Blair and is now a Labour frontbencher in the Lords, argued that ministers and Ofqual would have been aware of at least three breaches of the law in the standardisation formula used.
In a letter to Williamson and Ofqual’s chief regulator, Sally Collier, Lord Falconer said the saga “should never have come down to this, so late on, when Ofqual and the SoS [the secretary of state, Williamson] have been fully in the knowledge that the standardisation formula that was being used was unlawful”.
Falconer said Williamson’s claim to have only become aware of the issues around the algorithm at the weekend was extremely concerning, citing an education select committee report that had raised concerns in early June.
He said Williamson should now confirm when exactly the Department for Education was made aware of concerns about the algorithm and publish any legal advice it had received about the formula.
Falconer said the formula breached equality legislation and the 2009 act under which Ofqual was established.
Updated
Teenagers are being scapegoated, Scotland’s children’s commissioner has warned, amid growing concerns that house parties present significant infections risks to young people. Bruce Adamson has told the Guardian:
Young people have been really amazing at sticking to the rules, and made huge sacrifices both in their education and socially, but I’m now worried that there does seem to be scapegoating going on with some very mixed messages.
I worry that some statements from politicians seem to be apportioning blame or suggesting that young people are putting others at risk.
The warning comes as teachers and parents raise their own concerns about lack of consistency in distancing guidance for pupils in and out of schools, which returned full-time last week.
Following evidence that recent clusters in Glasgow and Lanarkshire were linked via a social gathering in a house where social distancing was not observed, Scotland’s national clinical director Jason Leitch warned on Monday that “unregulated” house parties were a “real concern”.
Sturgeon also went on to warn young people about the need to maintain social distancing whilst outside school, despite this no longer being required in the classroom.
Adamson said it was important to give “clear and consistent messaging”, noting confusion around wearing of face masks and physical distancing on public transport, shops and classrooms.
We have to be careful this doesn’t become accusatory and be aware of the impact on young people. Young people have said they feel the focus on house parties is unfair when it is often adults who are meeting up in that way.
Asked about these comments at her daily briefing, Sturgeon said:
I do fundamentally disagree with the idea that we are trying to scapegoat anybody. This is an infectious virus, it’s nobody’s fault.
But I’ve also got a responsibility to the nation to point out what we understand from the evidence are the higher risk areas for transmission. And we know that one of those is indoor social gatherings. Young people do like gathering together, it’s not blaming them for that to point out it is a risk.
Sturgeon said the “impact on young people has been immense and we need to try for their sakes to get as much normality as possible”. That, she said, is why she is so determined to keep schools open even if it means sacrifices from other parts of the community.
But I don’t do them any favours if I don’t point out where they are at greatest risk and try to minimise that, and explain the differences [for example in distancing at home and school].
The leaders of the four main churches on the island of Ireland today urged worshippers to wear face masks during religious services.
A joint statement by the Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church in Ireland said it has become “increasingly clear that the wearing of face coverings, in conjunction with hand-washing etc, is likely to reduce the spread of coronavirus, thus helping to protect others”.
Ireland’s top clerics said wearing masks in churches was “one way in which we can evidence protection for the most vulnerable, support for our health workers, and practical love for our neighbours”.
They said they understood that some people in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic were exempt from wearing face masks because of health reasons they hoped the majority of worshippers would do so. The church leaders added that they hoped that parishioners would start wearing face coverings from this Sunday 30 August.
Updated
The government said 41,397 people have died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, as of 5pm on Tuesday; an increase of 16 on the day before.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 57,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
The government also said that as of 9am on Wednesday, there had been a further 812 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus. Overall, 321,098 cases have been confirmed.
Sheffield University halts pay cuts amid expected rise in students
Sheffield University has halted proposals to cut salaries and promotions for staff due to financial concerns related to coronavirus after the institution found that more students planned to go there than expected, boosted by the government lifting its cap on intake numbers.
In an email to staff, the human resources department said that a recently-launched consultation on cost reductions would be closed. They said the pandemic had not “put students off going” and the government lifting the cap on how many people they could accept meant their intake could be higher.
They noted that other cost-saving measures had also helped, including voluntary redundancies resulting in “£12m in staff salary savings for 2020-21”.
The measures that were being proposed included pay freezes, pausing incremental pay progression, cancelling or deferring promotions and a reduction in pay.
Updated
A new Covid test centre is ready to start rapid testing of inbound passengers arriving at Heathrow airport’s terminal 2, as soon as the government gives it the go-ahead. Arrivals would find out results within 24 hours of being tested, replacing the need for a 14-day quarantine.
More than 13,000 passenger tests a day can be carried out in the facility, launched by aviation services firm Swissport and the Collinson Group, which runs airport lounges.
A second test centre will be ready at terminal 5 by the end of August, and operators say both centres are scalable according to demand.
The proposed pilot scheme would use a two-test model, which has been used successfully in Iceland: this involves a first test taken at the facility on arrival in the UK, and a confirmatory test a few days later.
These are PCR swab tests, used to directly detect antigens, indicating the presence of the virus, rather than tests of the body’s immune response, or antibodies. The optional tests will cost £150 each, but this could be reduced if the scheme was scaled up.
Updated
A local lockdown would not be the “right solution” for Oldham in Greater Manchester - potentially making the situation “considerably worse” in other ways, its council leader has told a virtual press conference today.
As we reported today, ministers are expected to decide on Thursday whether to order the closure of the town’s bars, restaurants and gyms in the first local lockdown in England since hospitality businesses reopened last month.
Oldham’s mayor, Labour councillor Sean Fielding, said in a press conference a little earlier:
We’ve had communication from government that it’s something that is genuinely being considered.
It’s almost a frustration that the plans that we want to get on with delivering on, in order to bring the infection rate down in the way that we need to, we’re not running at full capacity with those because so much of our time has been spent having arguments with government and others about how we are opposed to local lockdown and we think that it’s the wrong thing.
So, it is very real. It is a very real threat for Oldham, make no mistake at all, but we are resisting it strongly for all of the reasons that I’ve set out today.
The town has the highest coronavirus infection rate in England despite restrictions on social visits imposed three weeks ago.
The Guardian’s northern editor, Helen Pidd, also picks up on comments from the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham
Andy Burnham says he will be writing to @MattHancock today to ask him to release Wigan from the enhanced restrictions but keep them in place in the other nine boroughs - banning gatherings in homes and gardens. But he opposes extra measures in Oldham.
— Helen Pidd (@helenpidd) August 19, 2020
Updated
Scottish independence support reaches record high
Support for Scottish independence has reached a record high of 55%, according to a new poll.
Coming after previous polling had already suggested that the case for independence was being buoyed by perceptions that the Scottish government has been more competent than the UK government in Westminster, the latest research is based on the responses of 1,011 people across Scotland between 12 and 18 August.
The results of the 2014 independence referendum - when 55% of Scots voted to stay in the United Kingdom - were reversed, the polling company Panelbase found.
Pro-independence organisation Business for Scotland commissioned the poll, with chief executive Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp hailing the results as a “huge landmark” showing the “writing is very definitely on the wall for the union”.
The polling also comes at a time when the prime minister is attempting to enjoy a relaxing holiday in Scotland, as the Guardian’s Scotland editor, Severin Carrell, points out on twitter.
It's almost as if all the UK's polling companies knew @BorisJohnson was on holiday in Scotland this week #justacoincidence #indyref2 pic.twitter.com/K4WSCgMeZW
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) August 19, 2020
Updated
Responding to the education secretary’s admission that it was Ofqual that took the decision to scrap the algorithm and move to teacher assessments, the Lib Dem education spokesperson, Layla Moran, has said:
It appears that the decision to scrap the deeply unjust grading by postcode system came from Ofqual, not Gavin Williamson. Yet, just days ago, the education secretary claimed credit for this U-turn and attempted to throw the regulator under the bus.
The government has serious questions to answer over what looks like a deliberate attempt to mislead the public. Enough of the smoke and mirrors, we urgently need clarity. All internal correspondence between DfE and Ofqual on this matter must to be published.
Ultimately, if Gavin Williamson has been dishonest as well as incompetent, the prime minister will have no choice but to accept his resignation. It is time Mr Johnson stops letting down young people by backing his Tory cronies.
Updated
Covid infection rates have increased week-on-week in half of Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs but a tiny proportion of those infected have ended up in hospital, according to Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester city council and the deputy mayor of Greater Manchester.
Just 14 Covid patients are in intensive care in Greater Manchester’s hospitals, with just 71 non-acute inpatients, he said. Hospital admissions related to Covid had halved, week-on-week, he added.
Last week the region saw 15 Covid-related deaths, compared with 237 at the peak, the week ending 30 April.
“More people died last week in the city of Manchester from the effects of smoking than from Covid,” said Leese, arguing against any further restrictions being imposed in any of Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs.
“Some of the measures that have been imposed are now almost certainly causing more damage than saving lives,” said Leese, pointing to an increase in police calls relating to people with mental health issues exacerbated by lockdown restrictions.
Across Greater Manchester, infection rates have marginally increased week-on-week in Bury, Manchester, Salford, Tameside and Wigan.
Oldham, the worst affected district, had 83.1 cases per 100,000 people in the week to 15 August, down from 107.5 a week earlier. There were 197 new infections in that time period, compared with 255 the week before.
Updated
There have been no further reported deaths of people who tested positive for coronavirus in Wales, health officials have said.
The total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic remains at 1,589.
Public Health Wales said the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country had increased by 21, bringing the revised confirmed cases to 17,620.
Ministers are not considering making masks compulsory in workplaces, the health secretary has said.
French officials are planning to make wearing face coverings compulsory in most work environments as the country faces a rise in cases. Face coverings are required in many indoor settings in England but not for “employees of indoor settings”. Asked about the move in France, Matt Hancock has told BBC News:
We constantly look at the scientific advice and the answer here is we’re not currently considering doing that.
The reason is the evidence from NHS Test and Trace for where people catch the disease is that very largely they catch it from one household meeting another household, usually in one of their homes.
So it is that household transmission that is the core root of passing on this virus in this country. The amount of people who have caught it in workplaces is relatively low, from the evidence we’ve got.
Another 34 people in Northern Ireland have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Department of Health. The total number of individuals who have tested positive for the virus in the region is now at 6,505.
No further deaths with Covid-19 have been reported leaving the tally in the region, according to the department, at 559.
Students in England will take to the streets over the exams fiasco tomorrow. The National Union of Students is organising socially-distanced protests outside Department for Education buildings in London, Bristol, Coventry, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester at 1pm on Thursday.
The NUS is calling for a full review into grade inequality amid fears many disadvantaged students – including those from a working class background, students of colour and disabled students – are still unable to take up their university places, because their course is now at capacity or they have already made alternative arrangements. Larissa Kennedy, the NUS president, said:
Students will be taking to the streets because they are fed up of not being listened to. The government subjected students to an assessment system that has further entrenched educational inequality, and the U-turn was too little too late, meaning many of the most marginalised students have had their rightful university places torn away from them. This is not justice.
But this is not just about this year – it is about every student, in every postcode, in every year. Our education is built on classism, racism and ableism. We see this through the use of predicted grades and the underfunding of our schools, colleges and universities that creates a postcode lottery, year on year.
We need a complete overhaul of our system of exams and grading. In its place, we need investment into our education, our teachers, our students, our resources in order to end educational injustice once and for all.
Updated
Education secretary backs Ofqual after exams furore
The education secretary Gavin Williamson has finally given his backing to Ofqual, Jessica Elgot and Richard Adams write. He bowed to pressure to back Sally Collier’s leadership of the beleaguered exams regulator for England a day after steadfastly refusing to do so in a round of television interviews.
Some Tory MPs, including the chair of the Commons education committee Robert Halfon, had rounded on Ofqual over the debacle surrounding the ill-fated plan to replace exams cancelled because of the pandemic with grades calculated using an algorithm. But a DfE spokesperson has now said:
As the government has made clear, we have full confidence in Ofqual and its leadership in their role as independent regulator and we continue to work closely with Ofqual to deliver fair results for our young people at this unprecedented time.
The decision they took to move from moderated grades to centre assessed grades was one that we agreed with.
Updated
A university is offering a financial sweetener to persuade students to defer their studies, as an influential thinktank warned the “entirely avoidable” exams fiasco would hit higher education for years to come.
Amid growing fears about the impact of mass deferrals on the 2021 university intake, Durham University is offering bursaries to make the prospect of waiting a year more palatable. It has promised to honour all offers that are successfully met but says some students “will have to defer entry” because of capacity issues.
The move comes after governments around the UK were forced to abandon plans to moderate pupils’ predicted grades as they searched for a way to deal with the cancellation of exams because of the pandemic.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a summary of the day’s events so far:
- Aberdeen will stay under lockdown conditions after Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, defied calls to ease them. She said it was not yet safe to lift the restrictions that have been in place since the start of the month, despite the city council’s co-leaders calling for them to be lifted from Saturday.
- A senior government adviser accused ministers of passing on the blame for failures during the pandemic. Jeremy Farrar, a member of Sage and director of the Wellcome Trust, called for the government to change tack and “listen, learn, reform & invest in a public health”.
- Rail fares are set to rise again, despite the crisis caused by the pandemic. Fares will go up by another 1.6% in January, adding about £100 to the cost of many annual season tickets after an unexpected jump in inflation last month. Campaigners called on the government to abolish annual fare rises when passenger numbers have plummeted because of Covid-19.
- An official Covid-19 survey is to be expanded to test 150,000 people per fortnight in England, the health secretary has claimed. Matt Hancock, whose promises on testing have gone unfulfilled in the past, said the Office for National Statistics survey that currently tests about 28,000 people in that period will also collect data from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Updated
The joint general secretaries of the National Education Union (NEU) have written to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, to demand changes to exams in 2021 to ensure grades “properly recognise and reward”.
Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney said the controversy around last week’s A-level results “must never happen again” and urged the minister to prepare for new coronavirus outbreaks that could lead to “further loss of schooling”. In the letter, they said:
It is clear to the National Education Union that government needs to make much bigger changes to next year’s exams in order to build confidence that the grades awarded, upon which young people’s life chances are determined, properly recognise and reward their achievements.
You should be working, now, to examine different possible scenarios and to develop contingency plans in case of further school and college closures.
The NEU leaders said the government should reduce the amount of content assessed in 2021’s GCSE and A-level exams, work with teachers to develop a “robust” system for moderated centre-assessed grades and commission an independent review into the assessment methods for GCSEs and A-levels.
The current over-reliance on end-of-course exams increases student anxiety and fails to give a fair reflection of what students can achieve. All options should be considered to ensure that young people are rewarded for their achievements, supported to fulfil their potential and not held back due to their background.
Updated
Sturgeon gave an update on current clusters, saying there were now 17 confirmed cases in Coupar Angus linked to the Two Sisters food processing plant.
Of these, 15 are employees at the factory, with two people in the wider community also having tested positive.
With some school pupils also having tested positive after classes restarted last week, Sturgeon said there were now “two new individual cases involving people at schools in Johnstone and Dundee”.
She went on to say there were now nine confirmed cases in a Lanarkshire cluster, up one from yesterday. Overall, the contact-tracing scheme in Scotland has traced more than 900 positive cases since 22 June, Sturgeon added.
She said that only three people out of 925 had not been able to be contacted. More than 5,000 contacts have been traced, with 98.8% of these people having been successfully contacted, the first minister said.
Updated
Asked whether there was a risk that Aberdeen’s continued lockdown would be undermined by the city council’s position, Sturgeon said: “I have great confidence in people’s willingness to understand why we are asking them to do things.”
She added that she was “sure that [the council] will be responsible in encouraging people to comply because it is for the greater good”.
Pressed about the city council’s calls for lockdown to be lifted immediately, she said that she “respectfully disagreed” with their position but added that this was a difference of opinion over a matter of a few days, with plans to open up some premises from next Wednesday. “If we move too quickly to lift restrictions, then the danger is we tip it back the way and many more jobs will be at risk.”
Sturgeon explained that there remained some concern that the level of transmission not associated with the pub-related cluster remains elevated. She said that the non-hospitality cluster rate remains over 20 per 100,000 compared with six per 100,000 for the rest of Scotland.
Updated
Sturgeon’s daily coronavirus briefing came after official figures showed Scotland had entered recession following the Covid-19 lockdown.
Overall, the size of our economy is down 17.6% on February, the month before lockdown. Although lockdown eased in June, large parts of the economy, for example most retail, hospitality and tourism, at that point remain closed so we would not expect to see a full recovery yet in these figures.
But the figures do however reflect the scale of the economic challenge we face. They also underline the need for continued government action, both Scottish government and UK government.
Nicola Sturgeon says that it is not yet time to lift Aberdeen lockdown restrictions - "moving too quickly risks the hard-won progress we have made" - but plans mid-week review on Sunday and hopefully to re-open eg cafes from next Weds
— Libby Brooks (@libby_brooks) August 19, 2020
Asked about Aberdeen city council's call for restrictions to be lifted, Sturgeon insists "this is not about ignoring anybody, it's about trying to come to a balanced decision"
— Libby Brooks (@libby_brooks) August 19, 2020
Sturgeon said the Aberdeen outbreak was “by some distance the most significant outbreak” Scotland had seen since lockdown measures were eased.
A total of 398 cases have been identified in the Grampian area since 26 July, she added, with 226 of these associated with the cluster linked to Aberdeen pubs. The first minister stressed that measures to tackle the outbreak in the area were having an impact.
There is now some evidence that the original cluster linked with bars and nightlife is being contained.
However, we are also continuing to see a number of individual cases and other smaller clusters in the city. That is not necessarily unusual for an outbreak of this scale, but it is something we must monitor very carefully because these cases don’t appear to be linked to the original outbreak.
Updated
Sturgeon defies calls to lift Aberdeen lockdown
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has just announced that it is not yet safe to lift Aberdeen’s lockdown restrictions, which have been in place since the start of the month, despite the city council’s co-leaders calling for them to be lifted from Saturday.
The city council has warned it will not support any further imposition from the Scottish government. Saying she had taken the decision reluctantly, Sturgeon told the media at her daily briefing that there is still “volatility” in the Grampian area. However, she did also promise a mid-week review on Sunday and suggested that “lower risk premises” like cafes should be able to open from next Wednesday.
She also announced a £1m support fund for Aberdeen to be distributed by the city council, with grants of up to £15,000 for hospitality businesses.
Updated
Donna Hall, the chair of Bolton NHS Trust, has expressed concern about the knock-on effect the epidemic is having on people’s health.
Hearing some very worrying data today @boltonnhsft about people fearful of attending their medical appointments because of CV19. We had 7 people booked in for a biopsy on one day last week - only 2 attended and both had early stage bowel cancer @hannahjfarrar @GM_HSC @helenpidd
— ✨ Prof Donna Hall, CBE ✨ (@ProfDonnaHall) August 19, 2020
Jury trials have recommenced in Northern Ireland today for the first time since lockdown in March.
The first trial is underway at Laganside court in Belfast with a plan to open five more crown courts in the region by the end of September.
The devolved Department of Justice at Stormont said the move marked the latest staged in the recovery of the justice system since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Northern Ireland’s justice minister Naomi Long said:
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown restrictions, it was logistically impossible to hold jury trials. I recognise this will have been hugely frustrating and distressing for those who have been awaiting the outcome of cases. I want to reassure those impacted that everything possible has been done to get jury trials up and running in the safest and most efficient way possible.
But special measures will be put in place in the newly reopened courts to ensure social distancing. These include:
- The adoption of a two court model for crown court trials – with one courtroom being used for hearings and another used for jury deliberation.
- Physical distancing measures in the courtroom between all court participants, including between jurors, implementing the 2- metre rule and the use of screens where 2 metres is not achievable.
- Physical distancing in all public waiting areas.
- The provision of hand sanitisation stations at the entrances to all courts building, at all entry points into individual courtrooms and within courtrooms.
- Court users entering court buildings must wear facemasks in all communal public areas like waiting areas and lobbies. A face covering may also be worn during proceedings, unless a judge directs an individual to remove it.
Updated
A three-day weekly season ticket would give more flexibility to commuters, according to the chairman of the Commons transport select committee.
The Conservative MP Huw Merriman acknowledged that commuters are not travelling for the full week, if they are commuting at all, due to the epidemic. He has told PA Media:
But when people come back, they will not come back five days a week, for a lot of them. They will probably come back for three days a week, and for years we’ve been trying to push this idea of having a three-day season ticket, so that it makes it more flexible.
He said this is likely to be a reform that will come out of the ongoing Williams Review, adding: “We need that to come out now, so that we encourage people to commute, just part of the week, and get them back into the economy again.”
Updated
Northern Ireland’s devolved government will impose new restrictions on social movement in response to an increase in Covid-19 cases this month, the regional health minister has said.
Robin Swann warned that fresh measures to limit the number of people in households and at sporting events were being considered ahead of tomorrow’s Stormont executive weekly meeting, which reviews policies in the pandemic.
The devolved health minister said he would be making new recommendations to “arrest that spread of the virus”. These may include “possibly reducing the number of people who can meet together in a household”, Swann said.
His comments this morning followed a warning from the region’s chief scientific adviser, Prof Ian Young, that there had been a “tenfold increase” in the number of people tested positive for coronavirus.
Almost 300 cases have been confirmed in Northern Ireland over the past few days. This may be due to the fact that more people are currently being tested than before as hospital admissions have not since a dramatic increase so far this month.
Updated
Hello, this is Kevin Rawlinson taking over from Matthew Weaver for the next few hours. I’ll try to keep an eye on the comments BTL but by far the best way of drawing my attention to something will be via Twitter, where I’m KevinJRawlinson.
This will be sobering for Labour: as the government lurches from crisis to crisis, the Conservatives still remain 5% ahead in the latest opinion poll.
Westminster voting intention:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) August 19, 2020
CON: 42% (-1)
LAB: 37% (-)
LDEM: 7% (+1)
via @SavantaComRes, 14 - 16 Aug
Chgs. w/ 19 Julhttps://t.co/OvrmBQbryx
Updated
Scotland’s care home regulator has dropped its legal action against HC-One over the alleged mismanagement of a home on Skye, where 10 residents died after contracting Covid-19.
The Care Inspectorate applied to the courts earlier this year to strip HC-One of its licence to operate Home Farm care home in Portree, Skye.
The court action was put on hold while HC-One, one of the UK’s largest care home operators, worked with the regulators and NHS Highlands, to allow the firm time to combat the outbreak and improve its management.
The inspectorate said there had since been significant improvements at the home, and it was now dropping its legal action. At the first court hearing in May, HC-One said it was taking the regulator’s concerns about Home Farm’s management “extremely seriously”.
The inspectorate said: “We have monitored the home carefully and we are satisfied that there has been considerable improvement in the quality of care experienced by residents and the issues that were putting them at serious risk have been addressed.
“In light of this we have decided to no longer pursue the cancellation of the service’s registration through the courts.”
The Covid-19 outbreak at Home Farm was the largest and most serious of any on Scotland’s islands during the pandemic. The army sent a rapid testing centre to Portree after nearly all the home’s 34 staff and half its residents contracted the virus, leading to fears the outbreak could spread in the community.
Updated
Brittany Ferries has announced major changes to its schedules affecting around 50,000 passengers, PA Media reports.
The company apologised for the impact the move would have and cited poor demand following quarantine restrictions on French travel.
Up to 35,000 passengers either cancelled or delayed their travel plans with the company last weekend, and demand for this autumn is “extremely weak”, it said.
Brittany Ferries said it has been forced to change its schedules, starting at the end of this month.
Christophe Mathieu, the director general of Brittany Ferries, said:
We warned over the weekend that schedule changes were likely, as quarantine measures have led to a significant drop in demand for our services.
This is not something we want to do. However, in the context of a terrible summer season we have no choice but to consolidate sailings that, by virtue of lack of passenger numbers, are uneconomic to run.
These extraordinary decisions are regrettable and we apologise in advance to all those whose travel plans will be disrupted.
The changes announced are:
- The Armorique ferry will be laid up from 31 August. She currently serves the Plymouth to Roscoff route.
- Pont-Aven will replace Armorique on the Plymouth to Roscoff route from 10 September with three return trips per week.
- Pont-Aven will also continue to operate one return sailing from Plymouth to Santander and from Roscoff to Cork during the week.
- Bretagne will be laid up from 7 September. She currently serves the Portsmouth to St Malo route.
- Etretat will not resume crossings, as planned. Connemara will continue to operate the Cherbourg and Le Havre rotations from Portsmouth, but will no longer serve Spain.
Updated
The former prime minister, Tony Blair, has repeated his calls for mass testing to be rolled out across the UK in combating coronavirus.
He told Sky News:
There’s really two things that lie behind the desire for mass testing. Number one: the majority of people who get Covid-19 are asymptomatic, so in other words they suffer mild or no symptoms.
And therefore if you are only testing the people with symptoms, you’re not capturing a large number of people who despite being asymptomatic can nonetheless spread the disease. So that’s the first point.
The second point is that it’s one thing for the government to permit people to do certain activities but the question is how do you build the confidence in the public that they actually do those things?
So you can say to people: ‘Go back into work’, but if they don’t feel safe, they’re going to be reluctant.
And if you want to reopen schools, universities, workplaces, if you want international travel to function again, the only way I think you can do that is by doing testing at scale and that’s why we’ve got to move to this.
Tony Blair on @SkyIanKingLive: It's one thing for the govt to permit people to do certain activities, but it's another to build the public confidence so people actually do those things. The only way I think you can do that is by testing at scale.
— Tony Blair Institute (@InstituteGC) August 19, 2020
pic.twitter.com/DaPqbWbMpD
Updated
A new coronavirus testing programme at Heathrow airport could enable passengers arriving from certain countries to exit the mandatory 14-day quarantine period early, PA reports.
Aviation services company Collinson and logistics firm Swissport said more than 13,000 Covid-19 tests will be available to passengers each day, with results “within hours”.
It is proposed that arrivals will then take a second test at home and will be able to leave quarantine early if they pass both.
The new facility has been set up by Collinson and Swissport in terminal 2 at the west London airport.
The proposed system still needs government approval to go ahead.
Heathrow’s chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, said:
Testing will not only avoid the ‘quarantine roulette’ that so many passengers faced in Spain and France, it will also open up flights to key trading partners such as the US, Canada and Singapore.
The government’s own research shows that a double test has a high level of accuracy in screening for Covid-19.
This facility is an oven-ready opportunity to see how Britain can safely reopen for business, as other countries are doing.
Updated
Some of the experts who sit on working groups that advice Sage, have also questioned the decision to scrap PHE.
Dr Mary De Silva, a member of the PHE Serology Working Group, tweeted that PHE has been under-valued.
Public health was under-funded before the #COVID19 crisis. It was under-represented and under-valued throughout the UK Gov's response to it. And the mistakes continue to be repeated. Strong and independent leadership of the UK's public health agency is needed. https://t.co/fOwsXkLtTJ
— Mary De Silva (@MaryDeSilva5) August 19, 2020
Prof Harry Rutter, a member of the environmental working group, suggested that someone with “deep public health expertise” should run NIHP, rather than Dido Harding.
Important to note that Dido Harding is *interim* executive chair of the NIHP. The substantive post hasn't yet been advertised, but it is essential that @DHSCgovuk appoint someone with both wide and deep public health expertise and experience.https://t.co/OwgVkGVIil
— Harry Rutter (@harryrutter) August 19, 2020
Excellent thread by the brilliant @spidermaani https://t.co/Z6MuY5YFEH
— Harry Rutter (@harryrutter) August 19, 2020
I have been privileged over many decades & throughout 2020 work with huge number of incredible professionals @PHE_uk in U.K. & around the world (Ebola in West Africa & DRC), under appreciated & under-invested for many many years.
— Jeremy Farrar (@JeremyFarrar) August 18, 2020
Updated
Farrar accuses minsters of 'passing blame'
Jeremy Farrar, a member of Sage and director of the Wellcome Trust, has delivered a blistering attack on the government’s handling of the pandemic and its “passing of blame” for failure.
In a Twitter thread he calls for the government to change tack and “listen, learn, reform & invest in a public health”.
Better to listen,learn other countries, consider what long term public health trends,lessons from public enquiry & invest in a public health, prevention, social care & NHS that has what is needed & capacity to deal with expected & unexpected. A once in a life time opportunity.
— Jeremy Farrar (@JeremyFarrar) August 19, 2020
Yet there is a potentially opportunity, as is born out of such tragic crisis to listen,learn,reform & invest in a public health, social care & medical care that is equitable, inclusive, can meet needs of future decades & have surge capacity to prevent, prepare & respond to crisis
— Jeremy Farrar (@JeremyFarrar) August 19, 2020
As COVID shows few things could be more important
— Jeremy Farrar (@JeremyFarrar) August 19, 2020
Rail fares to rise despite Covid crisis
Rail fares are set to rise by another 1.6% in January, adding about £100 to the cost of many annual season tickets after an unexpected jump in inflation last month.
The passenger watchdog, campaigners and unions have all called on the UK government to abolish the policy of annual fare rises at a time when passenger numbers on the railway have plummeted because of the coronavirus.
It comes alongside the largest monthly increase in petrol prices for almost a decade and a lack of summer sales on the high street after the reopening of non-essential shops pushed up the rate of inflation.
Labour continues to criticise Williamson, but are stopping short of calling for him to go.
"It's our young people who've had to pay the price."
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) August 19, 2020
Shadow Housing Secretary @ThangamMP says it's "odd" that the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, didn't prepare for the 'consequences' of the A-level results.
#KayBurley
More here: https://t.co/sVpTQr6tGx pic.twitter.com/DKuywJ80S1
“The incompetence and chaos surrounding exam results will leave parents, school leaders and teachers with little or no confidence in this government’s ability to protect the interests of children across the country.” - @KateGreenSU https://t.co/mjNNRSY5Q9
— Labour Press (@labourpress) August 19, 2020
But the Lib Dems are not holding back.
"It's time for Gavin Williamson to go, and time for Boris Johnson to come back and say sorry."@LaylaMoran says Boris Johnson should come back from his holiday and "apologise personally" to students for the row over A-level and GCSE results.https://t.co/oqF9qfwhdR #KayBurley pic.twitter.com/s4Xh8ZYxrO
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) August 19, 2020
Updated
Hancock also pledged to bring in a population wide testing programme which he likened to the moon landings in its ambition.
He said:
We are going as fast as we can, working with dozens of these companies, both homegrown and international, to get the very best testing capacity. This moonshot to have testing ubiquitous and available, to reopen all sorts of things and reduce the burden of the quarantine arrangements, to allow us to reopen parts of the economy.
Hancock has denied that scrapping PHE will be a distraction from the fight against the pandemic.
Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme, he said:
I don’t accept that there will be a disruption. The reason is that we’re bringing together under a single leadership these functions. Of course they’ll be an organisational change element.
I am not a fan of these reorganisations. So I’m cautious about doing them, but I think this one is absolutely the best thing to do, because we need to bring together the different parts of the response.
The pressure on Williamson is not letting up:
Wednesday's Mail: The man who won't take the blame #TomorrowsPapersToday #DailyMail pic.twitter.com/yShNWLQzbG
— Tomorrow's Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) August 18, 2020
The Metro: Omnishambles Britain - #GavinWilliamson clings on to his job despite great exams fiasco / Failed TalkTalk chief Dido Harding is made Britain’s health supremo / And amid the chaos, there’s no sign of #BorisJohnson. #TomorrowsPapersToday #toryshambles #BeijingBoris 🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/1ftOpfFmWM
— Sam Pye (@freddie1999) August 18, 2020
The i said he offered to resign over the fiasco, something that has not been denied by Downing Street.
The Times 19/8/20
— The Times Pictures (@TimesPictures) August 18, 2020
Gavin Williamson leaving Millbank Studios, Westminster, yesterday. He insisted that he would not resign and blamed the exams regulator for the A-level fiasco. Photo : Ben Cawthra/LNP#tomorrowspaperstoday #thetimes #buyapaper @thetimes pic.twitter.com/AGe5jbVRd0
Testing to increase to 150,000 per fortnight
Hancock, has also announced the coronavirus infection survey is to increase from regularly testing 28,000 people per fortnight in England to 150,000.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey ultimately aims to include 400,000 individuals, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
The expansion aims to have 150,000 people tested per fortnight by October, and the survey extended to cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Hancock said:
We are developing the capacity to test for coronavirus on an unprecedented scale and undertaking one of the biggest expansions of surveillance testing we have ever seen.
This ONS survey will be a crucial part of this work – improving our understanding of the rate of infection in the population and how many people have antibodies.
This will allow us to further narrow down the areas potentially affected by local outbreaks and continue our fight to curb the spread ahead of winter.
The data and insight gathered will help inform our national, regional and local responses to the pandemic, allowing this nation to get back to the things we love doing.
Asked why the government tried to blame others for its failings over the pandemic, Hancock told Sky:
I take full responsibility for the whole pandemic response in the health and social care areas for which I’m responsible. I’m the guy who’s who answers the questions to parliament for these things in my area. The question is what’s the best thing for the country. In the case of education. We’ve got to get the schools back in two weeks’ time. In my case when it comes to the reforms that are put in place for how we deliver public health policy at a national level, I want to make that change because it’ll improve our response to coronavirus.
And he offered this defence of the beleaguered education secretary, Gavin Williamson:
These are unprecedented circumstances. And I think everybody is working their hardest and trying to do their best in in very difficult circumstances. I know that that is true of Gavin Williamson, as it is of all members of the government ... Not having the A-level exams is unprecedented. That, that obviously has led to a whole series of challenges and complications. Of course it’s been a challenge, and we absolutely acknowledge that but what I can tell you is that all of us are doing the level best to try to make the right judgments in what are difficult circumstances.
Updated
Hancock also defended appointing Dido Harding to chair the new National Agency for Health Protection.
Asked to set out her qualifications for the job, Hancock told Sky:
She’s been the chair of NHS improvement of the last three years. For the last almost six months, she’s been running our NHS test and trace system which so far has, has been in contact with a quarter of a million people and has been responsible for the huge expanse in the testing capacity that we have in this country which is now one of the, one of the biggest globally.
(Note: Hancock did not use the prime minister’s phrase “world beating”)
He suggested that Harding would be better placed than the current leadership of PHE to deliver the scale of testing needing.
So Baroness Harding has done a huge amount in the health field as well as of course having having experience outside in the private sector, which means that she has great experience of running large organisations ...
It’s a seriously large delivery organisation – it delivers just under 300,000 tests a day. That is a massive logistical operation so it’s both scientific but it’s also about scale. That’s one of the challenges that we’ve had in this crisis – having having gone into it that with a very strong scientific base and needing to turn that into scale.
Updated
Hancock has insisted this is the right time to scrap Public Health England and merge it with NHS Test and Trace.
Responding to accusations that the reorganisation will be a major distraction, he told Sky News “delaying doing it is the wrong thing”.
He added:
PHE have done an incredible amount of work during this crisis .... And I want to put on the record my thanks for the work that they’ve done, but we’ve now got the Public Health England, we’ve got NHS Test and Trace we’ve got a new joint biosecurity centre working separately. And so in order to keep people safe in order to have the very best possible response that we can. We need to bring these organisations together now.
And we’re going to do this carefully. It’s a balanced decision I entirely understand concerns. But on the other hand, all my experience through this pandemic has told me that if you need to act you need to get on with it. And I hope that this gives a long-term future for all those working on the pandemic response. Everybody now knows what the what the future holds, in terms of having a new National Institute for Health Protection.
Updated
Summary
Welcome to live coverage of the coronavirus crisis in the UK. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, is touring the broadcast studios to defend the government’s decision to scrap Public Health England in the midst of the pandemic.
He is also expected to deny accusations of cronyism over the appointment of Dido Harding to oversee the new National Institute for Health Protection.
Meanwhile, confidence continues to drain away from the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, in the wake of the exam-grading fiasco, as schools prepare to reopen.
And Oldham, in Greater Manchester, is 48 hours away from potentially being ordered into a “catastrophic” and “premature” local lockdown, its council leader has warned.
Updated
