Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions has he had with representatives from local authorities on proposals for (a) local and (b) regional lockdown measures.
Ministers have met with local authorities multiple times, including Tom Riordan attending a weekly Local Advisory Board chaired by the Chair of the Local Government Association.
In the vast majority of cases, local public health teams are dealing very effectively with outbreaks and containing them to settings like workplaces or care homes.
If local councils need additional powers to manage community flare ups, we will work with them to review how best this can be achieved, but we expect the majority of circumstances to be dealt with by public consent.
We will do all we can to avoid full lockdowns, but we can not rule them out.