Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government will take protect shielding workers returning to the workplace.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was involved in cross-government work, Safer Workplaces, coordinated by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which produced guidance on the safety measures businesses will need to adopt as they reopen. It contains practical steps to achieve social distancing and hygiene in the workplace. The guidance also covers who should be at work; including those who are at high risk (also referred to as extremely clinically vulnerable in recent guidance) or those who live with people at high risk.

The guidance “Working Safely During Coronavirus COVID-19” was first published on 11 May 2020 and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

Restrictions on people who had previously been shielded have been paused and Public Health England has published guidance to help those people to safely return to work: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19