Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advice that the public should wear a homemade cloth face covering outside the home where it is difficult to maintain social distancing.

Since 11 May, we have advised people to wear face coverings in enclosed spaces where they cannot easily social distance and might come into contact with people they do not normally meet, and from Friday 24 July, members of the public must wear a face covering when visiting a shop or supermarket in England.

In addition, the Government is running a major proactive communications campaign on face coverings to alert the public where they are now required to wear face coverings and educate the public on how to correctly wear one.

United Kingdom advice on face covering follows advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. As always, we are committed to following the evidence and will keep reviewing evidence from around the world and update our position as and when we need to.