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 implications for his policy on the compulsory wearing of face masks of the November 2020 Danish study on such coverings.

In January 2021, Public Health England (PHE) updated their rapid evidence review of the international literature on the effectiveness of face coverings for reducing community transmission of COVID-19. This review concluded that the use of face coverings in the community can help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the community when used as part of a range of mitigations (including social distancing). PHE continues to monitor the evidence on the use of face coverings, including the DANMASK study, which reported inconclusive results.