Coronavirus: Disease Control

(asked on 14th July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to collaborate with Cabinet colleagues to provide (a) food and (b) other humanitarian support for vulnerable people as part of (a) Test and Trace, (b) Local Lockdowns and (c) the Government's programme of economic recovery after the covid1-9 outbreak.


Answered by
Simon Clarke Portrait
Simon Clarke
This question was answered on 20th July 2020

We are working with other Government departments and supporting local authorities to respond to additional vulnerability created by the COVID-19 outbreak through financial support, as well as engaging civil society and supermarkets to provide further assistance, including access to food and essential supplies.

The Government has also confirmed an additional £63 million for local authorities to help those who are struggling financially due to the impact of COVID-19.

We have worked with Defra to provide approximately 3.5 million free food parcels in total, and currently around 250,000 each week, to people in England who are shielding and have said they need support getting essential food supplies.

The Government has also announced up to £16 million to provide food for charities and other organisations supporting those who are struggling financially as a result of coronavirus.
As part of this, Defra has also opened up the £3.5 million Food Charities Grant Fund for front-line food aid charities, offering grants up to £100,000 to support charities to continue to provide food to vulnerable people.

We are working with DHSC to support local authorities to respond to Covid-19 outbreaks by ensuring capacity and accessibility is available for testing vulnerable groups. The Test and Trace scheme ensures that anyone who develops symptoms of coronavirus can quickly be tested to find out if they have the virus, and also includes targeted asymptomatic testing of NHS and social care staff and care home residents.

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