UK Parliament hosts first-ever hybrid' PM's Questions session

The UK Parliament on Wednesday achieved a historic first as the House of Commons held the weekly Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) in a hybrid form, with around a dozen lawmakers physically present within the chamber and others tuning in online through giant screens set up to adhere to the social distancing norms in place to curb the spread of coronavirus.

PMQs, the Commons session held for the Opposition and other MPs to address their questions to the UK PM, was led by UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab as the First Secretary of State who is deputising for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who remains off work as he recuperates from his COVID-19 hospitalisation.

Wednesday's session also marked the first PMQs for Sir Keir Starmer, the recently elected Leader of the Opposition Labour Party, who opened the session by paying tribute to the British Sikh emergency consultant Manjeet Singh Riyat who died of the deadly virus on Monday and questioned the government on how many National Health Service (NHS) workers like him have now fallen victim on the pandemic frontline.

He was the first Sikh A&E (Accident & Emergency) consultant, respected widely across the country and instrumental in building up Derbyshire's emergency services. He is sadly just one of the many frontline health and social care workers to have died from coronavirus during this crisis, said Starmer, as he asked Raab for the figures of fatalities within the NHS and care homes across the country.

Raab confirmed the NHS death toll from COVID-19 as 69 but admitted that the government did not have the exact data for fatalities within the wider care sector for the elderly and vulnerable.

Every one of those deaths is a tragedy, he said, adding that the government was working on the challenge of procuring enough personal protective equipment (PPE) such as surgical gowns and face masks for the frontline workers in the pandemic.

Raab stressed that PPE procurement is "a massive international challenge" facing every country and denied claims that the government has been slow in any way, in boosting PPE supplies or to build up enough capacity for testing the public for coronavirus to meet the 100,000 tests a day target set for the end of the month.

The minister also gave Parliament an update on the repatriation of British nationals stranded from around the world, including 5,000 from India on special chartered flights.

A number of MPs logged in through Zoom to address their questions in relation to their specific constituencies.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle had granted an extra 15 minutes to the usual half-hour PMQs session to allow for technical challenges but the hybrid form of the session went ahead without major hurdles.

UK MPs, who approved the hybrid plans for Parliament on Tuesday as they returned after an Easter recess, were told that they must adhere to the same standards expected in the chamber if they are to engage in proceedings remotely.

To ensure all members are treated equally, those joining by Zoom will be expected not to display or draw attention to objects to illustrate their contributions, the Commons Commission said.

The plan is currently just for debates and statements to be held in a virtual form, with eventually voting on legislation also likely to fall within the hybrid system.

The Commons Speaker hailed the historic moment in the UK Parliament's 700-year history to have MPs contributing to PMQs, urgent questions and statements via video link from the safety of their own homes and offices.

Hoyle said: "The House has survived being burned down by the great fire of 1834 and bombed during the Second World War.

"We now face a new challenge, Covid-19, an invisible killer that has claimed so many lives already. It means that when we come back from the Easter recess, our MPs and the House of Commons will have to work in a different way.