Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the report by the Imperial College COVID-19 response team Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand, published on 16 March.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is responsible for ensuring that timely and coordinated scientific advice is made available to decision-makers, to support United Kingdom cross-Government decisions.

In fulfilling this role, SAGE considers a wide range scientific evidence. SAGE is supported in this role by a sub group (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, SPI-M) that consists of members from Public Health England and experts from several academic research groups at UK universities.

The report Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand, published on 16 March, is an important strand of the scientific evidence informing the Government’s response to the COVID-19 emergency.