Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish (a) a comprehensive list of what is deemed essential domestic utility work, (b) instructions on whether utility workers should engage in non-essential work and (c) his plans to ensure that employers (i) obey those instructions and (ii) support their workers to do so.

Based on current medical advice, the Government has stated that workers can continue to work when they cannot work from home, show no symptoms of Covid-19, and live in a household where no person is self-isolating.

We encourage households to engage with tradespeople on this basis, so urgent health and safety issues within homes can be inspected or remedied. Where such work takes place, Public Health England’s social distancing guidelines should be followed, which are available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/social-distancing-in-the-workplace-during-coronavirus-covid-19-sector-guidance#tradespeople-and-working-in-peoples-homes.