Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the letter of 13 November 2020 from the Leader of Kingston upon Hull City Council, Stephen Brady OBE, on the levels of covid-19 infection in the city, what plans he has to provide additional support and resources to the area's hospitals to help them tackle the increased levels of infection.

We have recently announced £2.7 billion extra funding directly to local National Health Service systems to cover the second half of this financial year, to provide additional support for NHS organisations to manage ongoing COVID-19 pressures and resume routine activity. Systems are now working with NHS England to ensure they have right plans in place to maximise usage of that funding.

We also have provided funding to a £3 billion package of additional capacity initiatives to support the NHS through the winter, including keeping the Nightingale hospitals capacity available during winter, accessing increased capacity from independent sector providers, and supporting increased safe discharge of patients from NHS hospitals.