Mark Harper

In September, the Government will undertake a review to assess the country’s preparedness for autumn and winter, which will consider whether to continue or strengthen public and business guidance as we approach the winter, including on face coverings and test, trace and isolate, and will review the remaining regulations.

The Government will maintain contingency plans for reimposing economic and social restrictions at a local, regional or national level if evidence suggests they are necessary to suppress or manage a dangerous variant. Such measures would only be re-introduced as a last resort to prevent unsustainable pressure on the NHS.

The COVID-status certification review has concluded that, although certification is not required at the present time, it could be a useful tool in the future as a means of keeping events going and businesses open if the country is facing a difficult situation in autumn or winter.

Any future implementation of certification would involve consultation and appropriate parliamentary scrutiny.

No policy decisions have been taken at this time.

Paragraph 1.4 of the Ministerial Code sets out the process for investigating alleged breaches of the Code.

The Prime Minister has set out the arrangements that will be in place in England once we move to Step Four of the Government roadmap. It will no longer be necessary for the government to instruct people to work from home and so employers, including the Civil Service, will be able to support the safe return to the workplace. The safe return of more civil servants to the workplace will be enacted by departments in line with updated Safer Working guidance from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and guidance from the Health and Safety Executive. This includes guidance for ventilation.

My Rt Hon Friend the Member for West Suffolk wrote to me on 26 June 2021, offering his resignation as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. I replied the same day accepting his resignation. These letters are a matter of public record.

My Rt Hon Friend the Member for West Suffolk wrote to me on 26 June 2021, offering his resignation as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. I replied the same day accepting his resignation. These letters are a matter of public record.

My Rt Hon Friend the Member for West Suffolk wrote to me on 26 June 2021, offering his resignation as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. I replied the same day accepting his resignation. These letters are a matter of public record.

I apologise for the delay in responding to the issues raised by the Rt Hon. Member. I refer him to the answer given to PQ 167836 on 23 March 2021.

Guidance for small marriages and civil partnerships was published on 22 March and can be found here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships#wedding-and-civil-partnership-ceremony-venues

We recognise that any restrictions on wedding venues may be disappointing for those planning such events, but we have to take necessary steps to limit transmission of COVID-19. This includes the closure of some settings and restrictions on social contact, including wedding and civil partnership ceremonies. By their very nature, weddings and civil partnership ceremonies are events that bring families and friends together, making them particularly vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19. We appreciate the sacrifices people have had to make across the COVID-19 pandemic and we do not wish to keep any restrictions in place longer than we need to.

In the COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021, the Government has set out the gradual and cautious approach to reopening in England, guided by science and the data, including the staged return of weddings and civil partnerships, as well as sporting events.

In order to inform the pace and sequencing of the roadmap, the Government commissioned advice and modelling from SAGE and its sub-groups. Scientific evidence supporting the government response to coronavirus is regularly published here - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/scientific-evidence-supporting-the-government-response-to-coronavirus-covid-19.

The UK Government has secured early access to 407 million vaccines doses through agreements with seven separate vaccine developers. This includes agreements with Novavax for 60 million doses and Janssen for 30 million doses.

Subject to regulatory approval by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which will review and analyse the relevant data to see if the vaccines meet their strict standards of safety and effectiveness, these vaccines are expected to be delivered in the second half of this year.

The Government is committed to ensuring access to vaccines as soon as is safely possible, which is why it is considering all options to help achieve this objective.

The evidence is based on published literature. In a recent trial of 2,260 adolescents aged 12 to 15 years old three COVID-19 cases were noted within 11 days after dose one among Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine recipients, as compared with 12 cases among those who had not received the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. There were no cases more than seven days after two doses, which is the recommended course for at-risk children. The study, ‘Safety, Immunogenicity, and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 Covid-19 Vaccine in Adolescents’, is available at the following link:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa2107456

In this context, the definition of ‘small’ means that although individuals could still be infected with the virus, they are less likely to develop symptoms of COVID-19 after vaccination.

Public Health England’s COVID-19 vaccination consent form for children and young people or parents and carers is part of a suite of materials designed to assist an individual in making their decision about acceptance of vaccination. It is intended that this should be completed once an individual has been supplied with the easy-read information leaflet on COVID-19 vaccination in children and young people, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-easy-read-resources-for-children-and-young-people/covid-19-vaccination-an-easy-read-guide-for-at-risk-children-and-young-people-aged-12-to-15-years

This contains the necessary information about potential side effects of COVID-19 vaccination, including myocarditis and pericarditis. These side effects are described in the patient information leaflet as ‘problems with their heart’; ‘pain in their chest’; and ‘breathing problems’.

The cap on care costs and increase in the capital limits will benefit all those who access adult social care, as the reform changes will be universal. We will be publishing an equalities impact assessment in due course.

The regulations will require all those who enter a care home to have received a complete course of their COVID-19 vaccination unless they are exempt. Any professionals visiting a care home will also be required to show they have been vaccinated before entering the home. The requirement does not apply to people who only work in the outdoor surrounding grounds of care home premises.

The condition also does not apply to service users and their visiting friends or relatives, under 18 year olds, members of the emergency services carrying out their duties, people who are providing emergency assistance, people undertaking urgent maintenance work or those visiting service users who are dying or experiencing bereavement. Individuals who should not be vaccinated for clinical reasons can secure an exemption from the requirement.

The consultation ‘Making vaccination a condition of deployment in the health and wider social care sector’ relates specifically to health and care workers, not to wider use of domestic vaccine certification. There are no plans to extend domestic certification to include flu vaccination.

‘Making vaccination a condition of deployment in the health and wider social care sector’ consultation is currently open and seeks views on proposals where Care Quality Commission-regulated health and care settings can only deploy staff who were fully vaccinated. The consultation also explores whether flu vaccination should be a condition of deployment in health and social care settings to protect those who are at a higher risk of flu.

We will be publishing a white paper later this year with further details on our plans for reform. Engagement with the social care sector, those with lived experience and other key stakeholders is ongoing.

We will set out more detail on our plans for reform of adult social care in a white paper later this year.

We will work with care users, providers and other partners to co-develop these plans and publish further detail in a white paper for reform later this year.

The forthcoming Spending Review will set out the Government’s spending plans for health and social care for future years.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) published interim advice on a potential COVID-19 booster vaccination programme on 30th June 2021 which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/jcvi-interim-advice-on-a-potential-coronavirus-covid-19-booster-vaccine-programme-for-winter-2021-to-2022

The JCVI’s interim advice is that COVID-19 boosters should first be offered to the most vulnerable. The JCVI advises a two-staged approach, with individuals in Stage 1 offered a COVID-19 booster vaccine as well as a flu vaccine, as soon as possible from September 2021 and individuals in Stage 2 offered a COVID-19 booster vaccine as soon as practicable after Stage 1, with equal emphasis on deployment of the flu vaccine where eligible.

It is important to note that this is interim advice to inform planning and this advice may be subject to change before being finalised. Final decisions on the timing and scope and cohort eligibility, including the groups listed above, of any COVID-19 vaccine booster programme will be confirmed once the JCVI have provided their final advice, alongside considerations related to COVID-19 vaccine supply.

For people who tested positive for COVID-19 but did not have symptoms, it is difficult to know when the period of infectiousness started. Someone without symptoms may have been tested at any point between the start and end of their period of infectiousness. Advice from Public Health England, taking into account operational, clinical and other factors, is that the highest risk period for contacts is most likely to be two days from the test date, this is in line with standard contact tracing practice. The NHS COVID-19 app has therefore been updated to look back two days from the positive test date for contacts of cases who had no symptoms. This change strikes a balance between protecting public health and reducing potential social and economic disruption. The anonymous nature of the app means it is not possible to robustly calculate what impact this change will have, however we are confident this will significantly reduce the number of low-risk contacts being advised to self-isolate.

Public Health England has not made an estimate of when herd immunity to COVID-19 will be reached in the United Kingdom.

I refer the Rt hon. Member to the answer of 22 July to Question 27052.

I refer the Rt hon. Member to the answer of 20 July to Question 28127.

The exemption regarding self-isolation for the fully vaccinated after contact with a positive case is being introduced in mid-August to allow more people to become fully vaccinated, reducing the risk of severe illness.

Public Health England’s (PHE) analysis published on 14 June shows the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 96% effective against hospitalisation after two doses and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is 92% effective against hospitalisation after two doses. As the vaccine programme progresses, links between cases and hospitalisations weaken. PHE’s analysis shows the vaccination programme has already prevented over 44,500 hospitalisations and 27,000 deaths in England. Consequently, introduction of the change in August will reduce the risk of further transmission, hospitalisations and deaths.

Test, Trace and Isolate has an important ongoing role in managing the virus and reduces the risk of potentially dangerous variants spreading. It continues to be important that anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 arranges to have a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test and that they stay at home while they are waiting for a home test kit, a test site appointment or a test result.

We continue to recommend twice-weekly asymptomatic testing. Testing remains freely available to all through pharmacies and online at GOV.UK. However, we are stopping free testing offered through workplaces as planned on the 31 July 2021. Asymptomatic testing will continue for education settings open over the summer, including summer schools and wraparound care. On the return to school and college in the autumn term, pupils will take two tests onsite before continuing with twice weekly asymptomatic testing until the end of September, when the position will be reviewed. Asymptomatic testing in vulnerable and higher-risk settings, such as the National Health Service, social care and prisons, will continue until further notice.