Families sue government, care homes and hospitals over Covid deaths – UK politics live | Politics

Families sue government and care homes over deaths of relatives in early days of pandemic

Good morning everyone. I will be running the blog today so feel free to drop me a message on Twitter with any coverage suggestions.

The main story coming out this morning is that a group of 30 families are suing the UK government, care homes and hospitals over the deaths of their relatives in the early days of the pandemic.

The families argue that not enough was done to prevent their deaths are claiming damages for loss of life and distress.

The cases all relate to deaths in 2020, when patients infected with Covid were being transferred from hospitals into care homes.

They say their human rights were breached by the government’s failure to protect their right to life, as well as their right to private and family life and not to be discriminated against.

The government has said it specifically sought to protect care home residents using the best evidence available at the time.

The cases follow a 2022 high court judgment that ruled the policy was unlawful. The discharge policy was only changed on 15 April 2020 to require testing for discharges and 14-day isolation for new admissions from the community.

The ruling said there was no evidence the then health secretary, Matt Hancock, considered, or was asked to consider, the need for isolation of discharges into care homes in March 2020, and so it was “not an example of a political judgment”.

Bereaved families have since told the UK Covid-19 public inquiry that people who died with Covid were treated like “toxic waste”, revealing the huge impact of undignified deaths and thwarted grieving, during emotional testimony.

You can read more about what the Covid-19 public inquiry has revealed so far here:

Below is the rest of the agenda for the day:

09:30am: Court of appeal judges due to deliver written ruling on the latest stage of a libel fight involving Laurence Fox, who is being sued by three people over an online row.

09:30am: Census 2021 data released by the ONS on overcrowding and under-occupancy in England and Wales.

12:00pm: Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar in conversation at the Edinburgh fringe.

Key events

Financial support to double for MPs who lose seats in UK election

Departing MPs will get bigger payouts for winding up their offices, with the sum doubling to £17,300, the UK parliament expenses watchdog has announced.

MPs who lose their seats or choose not to stand will be paid for four months after leaving office to enable them to wind up their casework and other duties – doubling from the current period of eight weeks.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) made the change after reviewing arrangements for payments following the next election.

MPs who lose their seats also qualify for “loss of office payments” – at twice the rate of statutory redundancy pay – and the winding-up payments come on top of this.

You can read the full story by the Guardian’s Whitehall editor, Rowena Mason, here:

Opposition parties have said more help needs to be targeted towards people struggling financially, amid warnings that households will feel little relief from high energy costs this winter.

Ed Miliband, the shadow energy and net zero secretary, said Labour would toughen the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas companies to pay for further financial support in the cost of living crisis.

“These figures demonstrate the scandalous Tory cost of living crisis is still raging for millions of people,” he said.

These figures demonstrate the scandalous Tory cost of living crisis is still raging for millions of people. 13 years of failed Tory energy policy has left Britain as the most exposed economy in Western Europe to the effects of Putin’s war. https://t.co/PpcrWHo8rt

— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) August 25, 2023

The Green party, meanwhile, has called for a government-backed home insulation programme.

Green party co-leader, Adrian Ramsay, said:

The new price cap underlines the urgent need for a government-backed home insulation programme targeted, in the first instance, at those most at risk of fuel poverty.

The government should be announcing today funding and support for local councils to start a mass programme of cost-saving home insulation.

With the right funding and determination, such a scheme could start to help people from this winter.

Even with a lower price cap, bills are still higher than before the energy crisis and are likely to remain high for the future.

In other developments, Ofgem has cut the price cap on energy bills to £1,923 after wholesale energy prices fell further.

The energy regulator said it was cutting the price that a supplier could charge for gas from 6.9p per kilowatt hour (kWh) today to 6.89p from 1 October. The price of electricity will fall from 30.1p per kWh to 27.35p, Ofgem said.

This means that the average household bill will end up at around £1,923 per year, according to the regulator’s calculations. Customers on prepayment meters will pay £1,949 on average.

Energy is regulated separately in Northern Ireland, where bills are slightly lower.

According to the Resolution Foundation, over one-in-three households across England – 7.2m in total – will face higher bills this winter than last.

While the price per unit of energy is falling, this will be offset by a rise in the daily standing charge and the end of the £400 universal payments, the Foundation said.

The energy cost crisis has fuelled calls from across Westminster and the energy industry for government ministers to do more to help vulnerable households pay their energy bills by setting a “social tariff”.

The government promised to consider legislation that would offer a tariff at well below the market rate but in a recent consultation on energy market changes a social tariff was not included.

You can follow the latest updates about the announcement in the business live blog here:

My colleague Emily Dugan has the full story on the legal action being taken over relatives’ deaths during the Covid pandemic.

The legal action argues that the state failed to protect them by not publishing procedures or policies to be applied by care homes and hospitals, she writes.

It will particularly focus on the decision in March 2020 to discharge hospital patients into care homes rapidly without testing or requiring them to isolate.