Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the NHS sending written evidence electronically to people on their being clinically extremely vulnerable to covid-19 rather than sending that evidence by hard copy.

When an individual is told that they are considered clinically extremely vulnerable as a result of national additions to the Shielded Patient List a physical letter is sent to them and emails are sent to those who have registered an email address with their general practitioner (GP). When an individual is added to the Shielded Patient List by their GP practice or trust, they receive their correspondence from those organisations directly. When there is an update to the guidance for clinically extremely vulnerable people, a letter is sent out to all those affected. In addition, an email containing the same information is sent to those individuals who have registered an email address with their GP.

We are actively encouraging the use of email, though we recognise this is not appropriate for everyone as some individuals are digitally excluded and would not receive any communication if the Government only sent letters in electronic formats. It has also been noted that that some clinically extremely vulnerable people rely on the physical letter as evidence for others, such as their employer.