Covid-19 Update

Theresa Villiers Excerpts

Monday 17th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

We publish that data, so I refer the hon. Lady to the gov.uk website.

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

The vaccination programme is one of the biggest and most successful civilian logistical exercises in our country’s history, and I thank the Secretary of State for his role in delivering it. It should open the way for our hospitality businesses to start operating at full capacity in due course, and for events, festivals and conferences to start, but there is still a lot of uncertainty about when this will happen. Will the Secretary of State publish a plan so that those two crucial sectors of our economy can reopen? It may take a while, but they need a plan and a timetable.

[Matt Hancock]

We are working on a plan for that with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and of course on the social distancing review that the Prime Minister is leading on. We are committed to making sure that we publish that well in advance of the decision on 14 June as to what the data show about step 4, which is currently planned for 21 June. Of course, we have set out four parameters for taking that step on 21 June, and the first three are currently in good shape. The challenge is the new variant, but it is far too early to be able to say anything about that specifically. We will look at the data up to 14 June and make an announcement on that date.