Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to ensure that people who have contracted covid-19 and are in a hospital setting are not discharged into a care home.

It is our priority to ensure that everyone receives the right care, in the right place, at the right time. This includes ensuring people are discharged safely from hospital to the most appropriate place, and they receive the care and support they need.

Building on the commitments of the Adult Social Care Winter Plan, we are working with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the NHS to ensure that everyone due to be discharged to a care home has an up-to-date COVID-19 test result, with anyone who is COVID-positive being discharged to a setting that the CQC has assured is able to provide care and support for people who are COVID-positive.