As part of our concerted national efforts to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, we are doing everything we can to ensure patients continue to have access COVID-19 test equipment and chemicals such as reagents and raw materials in all scenarios.

The Department has well-established procedures to deal with shortages and works closely with industry, the National Health Service and others in the supply chain to address supply disruption events that arise, regardless of the cause.

Public Health England has published an online monitoring tool to track behavioural changes, including alcohol consumption. The findings on alcohol consumption throughout the COVID-19 pandemic are that intake across the population as a whole remained about the same during lockdown. Those aged 18 to 34 were more likely to report consuming less alcohol each week than before and those aged 35 to 54 were more likely to report an increase. There was an increase in the proportion of ‘high risk’ drinking between February and June 2020.

Public Health England (PHE) has produced an online monitoring tool ‘Wider Impacts of COVID on Health’ which is designed to allow users to explore the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the population's health and wellbeing. The tool presents a range of health and wellbeing metrics, including bringing together several indicators on smoking and alcohol consumption in England over the pandemic period.

Data from PHE’s latest summary on the Wider impacts of COVID-19 on health published 24 September 2020 suggest considerable volatility in smoking behaviours.

The Government supports various campaigns to encourage people to walk more, including the Walk to School programme delivered by Living Streets, and local programmes delivered by local authorities under the Department for Transport’s £20 million per annum Access Fund. The effectiveness of these and other campaigns is considered in the first Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy Report to Parliament published in February 2020.

Public Health England’s One You campaign launched the free Active 10 brisk walking app designed to encourage adults to undertake more physical activity by simply going for a brisk 10-minute walk. The app was relaunched in December 2019 to align with the new United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines that every minute of physical activity counts and provides health benefits.

Decisions on future funding for future campaigns will be a matter for the Spending Review in the autumn.

We have encouraged local authorities to discuss with local hon. Members proposals for changes to restrictions applying in their areas. Our Contain Framework sets out how we will work with local authorities to respond to local outbreaks. Local authorities now have powers to give directions, in particular to close premises, to protect residents from the threat of coronavirus, and we will report on use of these powers to Parliament. Where more serious restrictions are needed, those would be implemented through regulations laid before and, in due course, debated in Parliament.

Optometrists in England are regulated by the General Optical Council (GOC). The GOC also regulates some optical businesses. We are aware that as part of the GOC’s current Strategic Plan, they are undertaking a project to consider reform of business regulation. The aim is to offer more consistency of regulation of businesses, both online and on the high street, across the United Kingdom and greater control of the quality of optical care delivered in the UK, which may lead to a request for legislative reform.

To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet PPE - note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library.

The health and wellbeing of National Health Service staff is, and has always been, very important to the Government. At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak we assessed that they would potentially need additional mental health and occupational health support.

We commissioned NHS England and NHS Improvement to develop a comprehensive package of emotional, psychological and practical support for NHS staff - building on the support already in place in local NHS organisations. The support package was launched by NHS England and NHS Improvement on 8 April.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have also launched a new framework, which will enable employers to buy-in additional occupational health support for their staff. This will supplement support already available in NHS organisations.

The Government has published safer travel guidance for passengers and operators online at GOV.UK. Services might be operating at a reduced rate and passengers are urged to identify alternative routes and options in case of unexpected disruption. It is advised that all other forms of transport should be considered before using public transport and that where possible, people should walk or cycle.

There will be some exemptions to the border control measures, such as to ensure the continued security of United Kingdom supply chains, or journeys within the Common Travel Area. We will set out further detail in due course.

The United Kingdom Government is working closely with the devolved administrations on decisions and guidance related to the current measures, coordinating and sharing information as appropriate to ensure all four nations can respond to the challenges presented by COVID-19. This includes taking opportunities to adopt common elements, where it makes sense to do so.

Where a matter is devolved, the UK Government’s guidance available online on GOV.UK is clear that measures apply in England only and should be considered alongside local public health requirements, guidance and legislation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Public Health England (PHE) has been asked by the Chief Medical Officer to review the potential that some ethnic minority groups are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. As part of this review, PHE is matching laboratory records of COVID-19 cases to other health records to draw down accurate data on ethnicity, age, sex and geographical region. The first results were published on 2 June.

My Lords, NHS trusts were rightly asked to postpone elective activity to free up capacity to support the response to Covid-19. The latest data shows that there was a 30% reduction in the number of completed admitted patient pathways in March 2020 compared to the same month last year. Data for April is due to be published by NHS England tomorrow. The NHS is safely restoring urgent non-Covid services, catching up on the backlog, and ensuring that surge capacity can be stood up again should it be needed.

On 26 March 2020 the Government introduced a series of social distancing measures based on scientific advice. These are strict measures, but they are measures that we must take in order to protect the National Health Service, slow the spread of the virus so the NHS would not be overwhelmed, and save lives. Helped by these measures, we have started to reduce the spread of the disease and ensured that the NHS was not overwhelmed.

On 16 April, the First Secretary of State (Rt. Hon. Dominic Raab MP) outlined, in line with scientific advice, five criteria that would be considered as part of assessing the necessity of the measures and whether they could be eased. These consider NHS capacity, death rates, transmission rates, availability of personal protective equipment, and avoidance of a second peak of the virus that overwhelms the NHS.

The Government will continue to review the measures, assessing them to ensure that they continue to be necessary and proportionate based on available scientific evidence.

Currently, there is no clear evidence to suggest that nitrogen dioxide and/or nitric oxide have a direct link to the infection rate or death rate of COVID-19.

Public Health England and other Government departments are reviewing and considering factors such as air pollution which may influence the health impact of COVID-19. This includes assessing whether there is any evidence of an association between exposure to gaseous pollutants or particulates and COVID-19 mortality in the United Kingdom.

Public Health England (PHE) is aware of evidence linking exposure to particulates in the air to altered expression of Angiotensin I converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), and of emerging evidence that this is a potential mechanism by which air pollution exposure could theoretically increase the spread or severity of COVID-19.

PHE is continuously reviewing and considering the evidence on the health impacts of air pollution exposure, as well as potential associations between air pollution and the health impacts of COVID-19.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies considered the very limited evidence available on the use of face coverings and advised that there was some positive benefit for reducing the transmission of COVID-19. However, the main ways to reduce the spread of COVID-19 are social distancing and washing hands regularly.

The Government is now advising wearing a face covering in situations where it is difficult to manage social distancing and there may be close contact with people the wearer would not usually meet. Guidance on how to wear and make a cloth face covering was published on 11 May in an online only format on GOV.UK.

This guidance refers to the use of cotton fabric, which is consistent with the limited available scientific literature on the use of face coverings.

Sexual and reproductive health services are open. They have reduced their face-to-face appointments to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection but they will be able to see urgent, priority or vulnerable clients in person. Services are also maintaining access during this time through scaling up on online services. This can be achieved through a variety of routes, such as increasing eligibility through current provision or utilising a neighbours’ service for residents of another local authority. Public Health England is also seeking to establish a national framework for online sexual and reproductive health services that local areas can choose to commission for their residents.

NHS England has published a number of specialty guides to help hospital departments continue essential care for patients within their speciality, whilst supporting the wider hospital and community in providing care for patients with COVID-19. On 26 March 2020, NHS England published a letter about the importance of maintaining the provision of tuberculosis services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHSX recognises that users must have trust and confidence in the way personal data is collected by the app and subsequently used by epidemiologists to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. We have prioritised security and privacy in all stages of the app’s development and have drawn on expertise from across Government and industry to review our app designs. Any user data collected centrally by the National Health Service will be held to the highest security standards. In addition to the continual monitoring, review and oversight undertaken by the NHS we have consulted with the National Cyber Security Centre to review and supplement our processes. Companies working for the NHS will be bound by data processing agreements that specify how the data must be secured, used, and destroyed. For an explanation of how the risk scoring algorithm works we have published an explanation on the FAQ page of the NHS COVID-19 website.

We have worked rigorously to make the app as privacy-conscious as possible, only collecting the data necessary to fulfil its epidemiological purpose and save lives. Existing law and National Health Service standards set out a framework of protective measures which ensure that user data remains secure and confidential and that the app is legally compliant. These standards include those set out within the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 in cases where data is provided that might identify an individual. The details of how an individual’s data will be used and how the requirements of GDPR and the European Convention on Human Rights apply have been set out in the Privacy Notice and the Data Protection Impact Assessment but these include that data sharing will always be proportionate and the collected data will be minimised. The key security and privacy designs of the app have been published, along with the source code, and we have welcomed scrutiny from experts at the National Cyber Security Centre, our independent Ethics Advisory Board, the Information Commissioner’s Office, and security researchers and ethicists from industry.

The Department is regularly in discussions with other countries on a wide range of issues of issues relating to COVID-19, including lockdown measures.

COVID-19 presents a global challenge which requires a collaborative response. The Department will continue to work with other countries throughout the crisis and beyond.