Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of the number of daily deaths caused by covid-19 infection in England and EU member states; and what assessment he has made of effect of easing the lockdown restrictions on the number of deaths due to that infection.

The Government cannot make comparisons with the death rate of other countries yet because countries measure deaths in different ways. We will learn lessons from our response to this virus, but these must be drawn from an accurate international analysis in the future.

As set out in “Our Plan to Rebuild”, the Government is introducing a range of adjustments to current social distancing controls, timing these carefully according to both the current transmission rate of the virus and the Government’s ability to ensure safety. The steps for modifying social distancing measures are set out in the plan, with strict conditions to safely move from each step to the next. We will make changes if and, only if, we think it is safe to do so. Protecting the health and safety of the British public is, and must always be, our number one priority.