Did minister ‘mislead’ House about PHE review?

By Barnie Choudhury

QUESTIONS are being asked about whether a minister misled parliament during a debate on Public Health England’s (PHE) review into the disproportionately high number of Asian and black people who died from Covid-19, Eastern Eye has learnt.

It follows last Thursday’s (4) urgent question to the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, in the Commons.

Eastern Eye understands that there are three main areas of concern – who led the review, why there were no recommendations, and why material from experts and groups was left out of the final report.

Badenoch told MPs that a BAME PHE director had led the review. “We do want to see diversity in leadership across institutions in this country, which is one reason why we asked Professor Kevin Fenton, who is a black surgeon, to lead on this review,” she said.

But the terms of reference (TOR), published on May 5, contradicts this. It said, “This work will be led jointly by Professors Yvonne Doyle and John Newton, and initial findings should be available by the end of May.”

Eastern Eye understands neither Doyle nor Newton is black or Asian. Badenoch also told the Commons that “PHE did not make recommendations, because it was not able to do so. Some of the data needed is not routinely collected but acquiring it would be extremely beneficial.” That was despite assurances in the TOR that it would “suggest recommendations for further action that should be taken to reduce disparities in risk and outcomes from Covid-19 on the population”.

The TOR document also stated: “PHE will work with external experts, independent advisors and stakeholders to consider the results of the review and any suggested recommendations.”

But the experience of the chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), Dr Chaand Nagpaul, suggests this was not the case. “We hadn’t been formally asked for any input. We pro- actively then wrote, and I wrote to Kevin Fenton saying, look, we are the doctors’ union,” he recounted during Eastern Eye’s virtual round-table of medics.

“There’s a serious issue in terms of over 90 per cent of doctors who have died being BAME. We have something to say, that’s why we called for the review. We did give some very, very specific proposals. But it appears that our proposals and those from other organisations did not make it in the final version,” he added.

Eastern Eye has now learnt that the former shadow equalities secretary and Brent Central Labour MP, Dawn Butler, has tabled four written questions for the health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock. Among them is one which suggests the equalities minister may have made errors in her answers.

“To ask the secretary of state for health if they will a) return to the House of Commons to correct their statement that the Public Health England report Covid-19: Review of Disparities and Risks in Outcomes was led by black doctor, Professor Kevin Fenton, when it was in fact led by Professor John Newton? and b) will they place a copy of the corrected statement in the Library?”

The MP also raised the matter in parliament. Using a point of order, Butler said, "On 4 June, the Minister for Equalities, the hon. Member for Saffron Walden misled the House when she made a statement with regard to a Public Health England report. She said that the report was led by the black doctor, Professor Kevin Fenton.

"This was not in fact the case. The minister also misled the House when she said that third-party submissions were not part of the report. I have written to the minister, but I wonder if there is a way that we can compel her to return to the House to correct the record."

Eastern Eye can also reveal that last Friday (5) the MP wrote to the PHE chief executive, Duncan Selbie, asking for a copy of the “third party submissions not included within the final published report”. We understand that she is still waiting for these.

Butler said, “I don’t think the full details of the review have come out yet. We don’t know who actually led the review. We know there were recommendations. Where are they? The equalities minister told the House it was Professor Fenton and made great play she was proud it was someone who was black. Yet the terms of reference makes clear that he did not lead it.

“Who is right? The minister or the press notice? I am concerned MPs, and importantly my concerned constituents, haven’t been given the right or most accurate information. That’s why I’m asking a series of written questions to the health secretary to find out who did what.”

There are also discrepancies in the government’s own website. On May 5, an announcement stated that: “Professor Kevin Fenton, Public Health Director for London will lead the review, supported by a wide group including Trevor Phillips, OBE.”

Eastern Eye asked Public Health England whether the statement in the TOR refers to those who led the PHE review, which was published last Tuesday (2). A spokesman said, “If it is in the press notice, then you can take it as being accurate.”

In a separate move, the former shadow international trade secretary and Brent North Labour MP, Barry Gardiner, has written to the health secretary seeking clarification on the entire review process. In the letter seen by Eastern Eye, Gardiner forensically picks apart what the government said and appears to have done. He believes the government should have done more to make recom- mendations and collect data for the review using the work being carried out by the Race Disparity Audit set up by former prime minister, Theresa May.

“But surely this was precisely what the Race Disparity Audit was set up to do by the then prime minister in 2016? If such action was taken, why does the government now claim that the data required to make recommendations to reduce disparities in risk and outcomes ‘is not routinely collected’?” the MP asks Hancock.

Gardiner told Eastern Eye, “This review was supposed to make recommendations about how to address health inequalities. Instead it regurgitates data to prove what we already know, that such inequalities exist. It is four years since the government set up the Race Disparity Audit. When will they ever get round to doing something about the problem instead of analysing it to death?”

Eastern Eye approached the Department for Health and Social Care and the Government Equalities office for comment, but they declined.