Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Government's preparations between June and September 2020 for a second wave of covid-19.

Since the initial pandemic peak, the Government has assessed and managed the impact of COVID-19 on the wider health and care agenda. This included agreeing approaches to managing service backlogs whilst also planning for winter and a successful European Union exit transition period.

During the summer the Government continued to work on the response to COVID-19 by developing the health and social care plan to ensure readiness. This has included £3 billion of additional funding to support the National Health Service announced on the 17 July and a further £450 million of capital funding.