Committees

Defence chief, former Cabinet Secretary, Information Commissioner, UK statistics and NHSX bosses give evidence

21 July 2020

A health chief at the centre of the Salisbury poisonings crisis is one of several high-profile witnesses when the House of Lords Public Services Committee takes evidence.

Background

Peers looking into how COVID-19 has affected public services and the lessons that need to be learned from the lockdown will explore how services dealt with past crises, and consider how well public services have shared data during lockdown.

Witnesses

Thursday 22 July 2020 - virtual meeting

At 3.00pm

  • Tracy Daszkiewicz, Deputy Director of Population Health and Wellbeing, Public Health England
  • Lord O'Donnell GCB, Cabinet Secretary 2005-2011
  • Lieutenant General Douglas Chalmers, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Military Strategy and Operations), Ministry of Defence

At 3.55pm

  • Professor Sir Ian Diamond, Head of Government Statistical Service and Office for National Statistics
  • Elizabeth Denham CBE, Information Commissioner
  • Steve Wood, Deputy Commissioner, Regulatory Strategy, Information Commissioner's Office
  • Simon Madden, Acting Director of Policy & Strategy, NHSX (health and social care digital transformation unit)

Possible questions

  • How has the army learnt lessons from previous crises, for example the outbreak of foot and mouth disease?
  • What was learnt from the public service response to the novichok poisonings about how different agencies adapt to crisis conditions?
  • What did the Treasury and Bank of England learn from the financial crisis?
  • How has the Office for National Statistics performed during the pandemic? What lessons has it learnt for the future?
  • How might a future data regulatory regime enable innovation while ensuring that people's private data is protected?
  • Will councils have sufficient access to the data that they will need to determine whether they should exercise their new powers to enforce local lockdowns?

Further information