Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure compliance with legal requirements to wear masks to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

We are running a proactive communications campaign on face coverings to alert the public to the places where they now are required to wear a face covering, how to wear one correctly, and who is exempt from wearing one - exemptions for children under the age of 11 and those unable to wear a face covering, due to health, age, equality or disability reasons apply.

While the Government expects the vast majority of people will comply with the rules, as they have done throughout the pandemic, police and Transport for London officers have been given the powers they need to ensure the public comply with the regulations.

The police have been clear that they will follow the four-step escalation principles of engaging, explaining, encouraging, and enforcing, only issuing a fine as a last resort.