Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure public health oversight of the management of covid-19 in social care settings.

Our action plan for adult social care published on 16 April reiterates that local authorities are the lead local agency for responding to COVID-19 in social care. Local authority directors of public health have statutory responsibility for exercising their local authority’s functions in planning for, and responding to, emergencies that present a risk to the public’s health, so we expect them to closely engaged in management and oversight of local action on COVID-19 in care settings.