False positives happen when someone is incorrectly given a positive result for something which in fact they do not have. “My right honourable friend will have seen… especially over the past week that we have expanded some of those local interventions to cover bigger geographies. “And does he further agree with me that political judgments are improved by debate and scrutiny?”, Mr Hancock responded: “Yes I do and I do come to this despatch box as often as possible. Conservative Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, said: “Does (Mr Hancock) agree with me that balancing the measures to tackle Covid with the other health consequences such as cancer patients going undiagnosed or not treated in time and the economic and social consequences is a political judgment? Tests are being prioritised. Our current tests have one and two per cent false positive rates – which, when millions are being tested every day, risks causing personal and economic harm to tens of thousands of people. On ITV’s This Morning, he was asked whether landlords would be told to shut this weekend. Announcements in the House of Commons list the topic as 'Covid-19 testing'. “He’s absolutely right that there are some parts of the country where the number of cases is still thankfully very low and so the balance between what we do nationally and what we do locally is as important as the balance in terms of what we do overall.”. Matt Hancock said the Government will sign up to new international guidelines to protect NHS and social care workers. He told the Commons: “I’ve heard the concerns about the impact of local action on childcare arrangements. 18 September 2020, 12:07pm. Earlier this morning, Hancock was unable to say whether England’s pubs would be allowed to open this weekend as the Government prepared extra measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. He told the Commons: “Given the huge consequences of this virus for people in our communities on their mental health, particularly the younger generation who are paying a very heavy price, can I say to him that given those regional variations – and in the full knowledge of all the pressures that he is facing – I do not believe the case for further national measures has yet been made.”. Perhaps he simply misspoke or, perhaps more worryingly, does not actually understand simple statistics and probability. Mr Hancock said: “Nobody’s addressed the problems and the challenges that we have got in the testing system more than me and what we need to do is resolve those problems, as we have in the very large part resolved the problem of people being sent long distances. Hancock starts by saying the cases in Europe are now higher than during the peak in March.
He provided no further details about the content of the statement, although the Government is meeting on Thursday to decide whether Leicester's lockdown will continue.