House of Commons – Oct. 14, 2020 – 137

Question put (Standing Order No. 31(2)), That the original words stand part of the Question. Amendment: I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “when” to end and insert “working in conjunction with NHS Test and Trace;

welcomes the huge expansion of testing to a capacity of over 340,000 tests a day;

applauds the efforts of all involved in testing and contact tracing both at a national and local level;

recognises that 650,000 people have now been asked to isolate thanks to the work of NHS Test and Trace, and supports the Government’s efforts to expand testing and tracing yet further.”. Original words: I beg to move, That this House notes the consistently high performance of local contact tracing systems when compared with the centralised system established by the Government;

notes the wealth of evidence that the considerable sums of public money spent so far on the national system would deliver better public health outcomes if devolved to local authorities and public health experts;

and calls on the Government to extend the additional funding for contact tracing available in Tier 3 areas to all parts of the country and ensure that councils and local public health teams receive the resources and powers they require.