Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing Band 5 nurses to fill tracking and tracing roles to tackle the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government launched its new NHS Test and Trace service on 28 May 2020. This includes enhanced contact tracing.

Public Health England’s local health protection teams and local authority public health teams are an integral part of the contact tracing system. They will be supported by around 25,000 additional contact tracers, a mix of call handlers and health professionals. Health professional applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role will be considered. The post is not band specific.