Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide further clarification on the criterion used to define close proximity for the purposes of Test and Trace.

Since NHS Test and Trace was launched, on 28 May 2020, it has reached more than 144,000 people who may have otherwise unknowingly spread the virus to others.

A contact is defined as someone who:

- has had close contact (for instance direct face-to-face contact) with someone with COVID-19; or

- spent more than one minute within one metre, or 15 minutes within two metres, of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

We would also look to trace people who have travelled in a small vehicle with someone with COVID-19 or sat next to them on a plane.