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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people classified by the NHS as extremely vulnerable people who have been asked to shield at home have (a) requested and (b) received support from (i) community hubs as announced on 21 March 2020 and (ii) supermarkets.

MHCLG continues to work closely with local authorities to manage the impacts of Covid-19 on the most vulnerable in our society.

Government provides food parcels directly to those identified as clinically extremely vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus if they do not have alternative means of accessing support. Over 280,000 clinically extremely vulnerable people have requested support and Government has delivered over 800,000 food parcels directly to people’s doorsteps since March.

Local councils across the country have set up local authority hubs and have local systems and processes to provide those who are medically vulnerable in their area with additional support, over and above that provided centrally.

Clinically extremely vulnerable individuals who have requested essential supplies through the gov.uk website have had their details passed onto supermarkets and the Government continues to work with supermarkets to support the prioritisation of clinically extremely vulnerable people for delivery slots.