Here’s what we know about accusations that Mr Hancock and Lord Bethell used private email addresses during the pandemic.

2 Jul 2021 | Full Fact's weekly news
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FACT CHECK
Matt Hancock’s alleged use of private email
On 27 June, a Sunday Times article claimed that Mr Hancock and health minister Lord Bethell had breached government guidelines by using their personal email addresses to conduct government business during the pandemic.

But this was denied by the prime minister’s official spokesperson the next day.

Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said: “Both the former health secretary and Lord Bethell understand the rules around personal email usage and only ever conducted government business through their departmental email addresses”. It was also clarified that use of personal email accounts would have been “related to things like diary acceptances”.

This denial is directly contradicted by the documents seen by the Sunday Times, shared on Twitter by the author of the article. They show leaked minutes of a meeting between senior Department of Health and Social Care officials specifically stating that Mr Hancock and Lord Bethell used private email accounts.

A day after the government’s denial, the prime minister’s official spokesperson confirmed that Lord Bethell had used his personal email, however Lord Bethell told the House of Lords he is “absolutely rigorous” in conducting government business through official channels.

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FACT CHECK
Website makes false claims about vaccines and miscarriages ([link removed])

An article on a website called Daily Expose has claimed that between 9 December 2020 and 2 June 2021 there was a 3016% increase in the number of women who had miscarried “as a result of” having the Covid-19 vaccine.

This was based on data from the Yellow Card reporting scheme. Miscarriages have been reported following vaccination, but there’s no evidence to show vaccines were the cause. The number of miscarriages reported after vaccination does not appear to exceed the number you would ordinarily expect.

The American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that data of vaccinations among over 100,000 pregnant women “did not identify any safety concerns”.

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Following his resignation as Health Secretary, questions remain to be answered about Matt Hancock in regards to the ministerial code and his reported use of his personal email to conduct government business. We discuss this, the haranguing of Chris Whitty... and whether you're allowed to hug your mates if England score a goal.

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FACT CHECK
Two newspapers get numbers seriously wrong

An article published by The Sun on 27 June claims that 100,000 pupils have failed to return to school full-time despite classrooms reopening.

This claim is based on a report produced by the Centre for Social Justice, which states that during September to December 2020, 93,514 pupils in England were severely absent, which means they missed school more often than they attended. This does not include pupils who missed lessons directly due to Covid-19, for example, school bubble closures.

The Sun fails to point out in the headline and the first five paragraphs of the article that this figure applies to attendance in September to December 2020, and is not reflective of current school attendance rates.

Separately, the Telegraph claimed “748.6 people per 100,000” in England died in May. But this is the annualised, not monthly, death rate for May. This means that if May’s death rate applied across the whole year, there would be 748.6 deaths per 100,000 people over the course of the year. But it is wrong to say that this proportion of people who did die during that month.

If 748.6 people per 100,000 died each month, on average, then around 9% of the country would die every year. In reality, about 1% of the population of England dies each year.

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