Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether local authorities will be permitted to carryover remaining Contain Outbreak Management Fund allocations into 2022-23 to enable the continuation of contact tracing.

The current terms of the grant state that the Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) must be spent within this financial year. No decisions have been made regarding any remaining funding in 2021/22 and we are currently assessing future use of the COMF.

We continue to work with local authorities to ensure that the Fund delivers the objectives of Local Outbreak Management Plans to best support their communities.