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 ensure that local authorities which have enacted provisions contained within the Coronavirus Act 2020 to suspend statutory duties to provide care needs assessments continue to be (a) transparent with the public and (b) compliant with guidance issued by his Department.

The Department published guidance which states that the decision to enact the provisions contained within the Coronavirus Act 2020 should be communicated to all providers, service users and carers, and that the accessibility of communication to service users and carers should be considered. The Coronavirus Act 2020 gave the Secretary of State a power to direct local authorities to comply with this guidance and the Department will keep this under review.