Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to include an assessment of NHS staff capacity in decision-making on the ending of the covid-19 lockdown that began on 6 January 2021.

National Health Service capacity is monitored by NHS England, while Public Health England publishes monitoring data on capacity at the following link:

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare

The Government will take a cautious approach to easing lockdown and will be guided by the data. Of the four tests to facilitate decision-making around the easing of lockdown, two relate to NHS capacity; evidence showing vaccines are sufficiently effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths in those vaccinated; and evidence that infection rates do not risk a surge in hospitalisations which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHS.