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 the level of reduction in transmission of covid-19 as a result of the public wearing face coverings.

In making its recommendations to the Government, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies considered the evidence from a number of different studies and their conclusions are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sage-minutes-coronavirus-covid-19-response-21-april-2020

In June 2020, Public Health England (PHE) used an established methodology to complete a rapid review of the evidence related to face coverings in the community and COVID-19 and concluded that “the beneficial effects of wearing masks may be increased when combined with other non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as hand washing and social distancing”. A second review, published in January 2021, found evidence consistent with the findings of the first review, that the use of face coverings in the community helped reduce the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, PHE continue to advocate the same measures of wearing face coverings in specified community settings, alongside social distancing and good hand hygiene.