Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the established contact tracing expertise in (a) sexual health services, (b)TB clinics and (c) environmental health services is being used as part of the covid-19 response; and if he will make a statement.

There are currently approximately 1,300 staff working within Public Health England’s (PHE) contact tracing cell, health protection teams and field services across the country, with more recruitment underway to further strengthen support to local outbreaks and incident responses, including COVID-19 contact tracing. New staff come from a range of backgrounds including retired medical personnel, local authority staff, environmental health advisors, sexual health advisors and agency nurses. PHE staff work closely with local authority and National Health Service teams to follow up contacts and manage complex settings.