Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the letter sent to the hon. Member for Stockton North on 25 January 2021 on Covid-19 Health and Safety in Courts, for what reasons HMCTS Response and Recovery Team will contact Public Health England only when there are five or more positive cases within a 14-day window.

The HMCTS Response and Recovery Team follows PHE guidance on when to report cases to them. This guidance is available here:

https://coronavirusresources.phe.gov.uk/reporting-an-outbreak/resources/Institutions-Action-Cards/

In line with what is required of us by Public Heath England (PHE), we alert local authority public health teams whenever the threshold for reporting is reached and act on their advice. This means that our policies, and how they are implemented at an operational level, are repeatedly reviewed by multiple experts who are independent of HMCTS.

The first PHE threshold for referral to local Health Protection Teams was two or more positive cases in 14 days. We followed this guidance until 20 November 2020 when it increased to five or more cases in 14 days (for England only) and adjusted our referral process accordingly. As of 18 December, the guidance removed the threshold of five or more cases, and now includes the following criteria for referral:

• you’ve taken the action outlined but are still seeing more cases

• you’re thinking you might need to close because of the number of people affected

• somebody in your workplace has been admitted to hospital; You’re getting significant interest from local media

We follow the updated guidance, including referring cases under the five or more threshold, but also continue to refer any incident where the threshold of five or more positive cases in 14 days is met.