Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the evidential basis on which the Government's decision to permit house viewings to continue during the third national covid-19 lockdown in England was reached.

We have worked with both the estate agency sector and Public Health England to develop our guidance and make sure that agents are operating in a COVID-secure way, as such businesses are required to do in order to remain open. Throughout the pandemic, the Government has listened carefully to the views of the scientific community, the information from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and its sub-groups when taking decisions on the best way to tackle the pandemic.