Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to protect care home residents during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Adult Social Care Winter Plan sets out the actions the Government are taking to support the sector. We are providing free personal protective equipment (PPE) to care homes via the PPE portal until June 2021. In addition, we have provided over £1.4 billion in specific funding for adult social care, £4.6 billion for local authorities to address pressures on public services, infection prevention and control guidance and increased staff testing to identify new cases and protect the workforce as well as residents.

We have placed residents and staff in care homes for older adults in the highest priority group of the vaccination programme, following advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.