Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department undertook an assessment of the potential merits for economic recovery from the covid-19 outbreak of bringing forward the lifting of the self-isolation requirement for people who have been double-vaccinated against covid-19 from 16 August 2021.

The majority of restrictions were lifted prior to 16 August 2021, waiting until this date to lift the self-isolation requirement on fully vaccinated contacts of positive cases has enabled more people to become fully vaccinated which significantly reduces the risk of severe illness and onward transmission and provided greater protection for people across the country.