Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of potential merits of introducing a safe visiting scheme in care homes.

We recognise how important it is for care home residents to see their loved ones, especially for those at the end of their lives.

On Thursday 5 November we published guidance to enable COVID-19 secure visits to take place for care home residents while national restrictions are in place.

This guidance is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus

Plans are currently being developed to allow specific family and friends to visit care homes supported by testing. We have begun rollout of visitor testing, and aim to have nationwide visitor testing by Christmas.