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 policies of the Scottish Government's decision to offer family carers personal protective equipment; and if he will introduce a similar policy in England.

On 8 April the Government published guidance for unpaid carers which provides general advice, including advice on infection control, links to other information and support, and advice on caring where someone has symptoms. This can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-providing-unpaid-care

The Government will continue to work closely with carer organisations and others to support unpaid carers during this period and beyond. This includes working with Carers UK to provide carers with practical advice which can be found at the following link:

https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/health/looking-after-your-health/coronavirus-covid-19

Guidance for everyone, including unpaid carers, on self-care and mental health wellbeing can be found published on GOV.UK.

We do not recommend the use of facemasks as an effective means of preventing the spread of infection, unless advised by a healthcare professional. Facemasks play an important role in clinical settings, such as hospitals, where staff are trained in the use of personal protective equipment but there is little evidence of benefit from their general use outside of these settings. As such there are no current plans to change the policy in England.