Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with supermarket retailers on the steps retailers are taking to ensure that clinically extremely vulnerable people have continued access to priority online shopping deliveries over the Christmas period.

Defra is continuing to work closely with supermarkets to provide clinically extremely vulnerable individuals in England with priority access to supermarket delivery slots. Between 2 December and 5 January, any clinically extremely vulnerable person living in a Tier Three or Tier Four local area who did not already have priority access to delivery slots was still able to register for this support through the Government website: www.gov.uk/coronavirus-shielding-support.

During the third lockdown, all clinically extremely vulnerable people are able to register for priority access to delivery slots with seven supermarkets: Asda, Iceland, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose. All clinically extremely vulnerable individuals who have registered through the Government website will retain their priority access to delivery slots until at least March 2021.