Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Government has made of the effectiveness of the local covid-19 lockdown restrictions imposed on Oldham in August 2020 relating to (a) meeting outdoors, (b) funeral mourner attendance and (c) public transport use.

In August, aggregated mobility information from multiple data sources suggested that time spent in household settings, be that outdoors or at family events, fell somewhat after the ban on household mixing. Time spent at transit stations also fell markedly across Greater Manchester following the August measures. The number of household contacts in contact tracing data fell following local interventions in Oldham and following the national rule of six. COVID-19 infections subsequently fell in Oldham.

The Government continues to assess the transmission of COVID-19 and the impact of local interventions on its trajectory. At the start of November, ‘R’ was above one everywhere and the virus was more widespread in the North West. Further action was required to address the rise in cases. The national restrictions took effect on 5 November in response to the continued threat of the epidemic in its second wave. These ended on 2 December. The tiers of interventions will be strengthened in comparison to the previous tiers to prevent a return to growing infections.