Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his contribution of 19 October 2020, Official report, column 790, what steps he is taking to ensure that visits to care homes are not suspended in Tier (a) 2 and (b) 3 covid-19 restriction areas.

We recognise how important it is to allow care home residents to safely meet their loved ones. On 5 November we published guidance to enable COVID-19 secure visits to take place for care home residents while national restrictions were in place. This guidance was intended to enable providers, supported by local professionals, families and the wider community, to provide appropriate visiting opportunities, that balance these important benefits against the continued priority of preventing infections to protect staff and residents.

On 1 December we published new guidance for care home visiting following the November period of national restrictions, enabling indoor visits to take place provided a visitor had a negative COVID-19 test combined with infection prevention and control precautions.

On 19 December tier 4 was introduced which restricted visiting to the same basis as the November national restrictions, given the increased prevalence of the virus in tier 4 areas.

On 6 January the current national lockdown began. We updated our guidance on 12 January. For this period, visiting is restricted to outdoor visiting and screened visits. Visits in exceptional circumstances including end of life should always be enabled.

Recognising the importance of visiting for the wellbeing of residents and those who visit them, we will work to enable more visits as soon as it is safe to do so.