Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reintroducing virtual parliamentary proceedings in response to London being subject to Tier 2 local covid-19 restrictions from 17 October 2020.

It is the Government’s view that we best serve our constituents when we are here in Westminster, carrying out our essential functions, as we have been throughout the pandemic. Covid Alert Level - High includes a number of additional restrictions to limit social contact to help lessen the spread of the virus; it does not seek to close workplaces in general and people may still travel for work purposes. Parliament is a place of work and an institution that performs an essential constitutional role, making and changing legislation, debating key issues and scrutinising the broader work of Government. A return to hybrid proceedings would mean that we would necessarily need to make difficult decisions to limit what the House of Commons can do.

The Government is sympathetic to those members who are currently unable to participate in some aspects of our proceedings. However, the Government has done everything it can to mitigate that, including a wide scale roll out of proxy voting and providing for remote participation in scrutiny proceedings, including select committees.

The House authorities have worked hard to put in place robust and effective measures to ensure that the House of Commons is a covid-secure workplace.