Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason areas with similar infection rates are subject to different infection control measures.

The introduction of the new local COVID-19 alert levels brings standardisation and consistency to interventions and is intended to make it easier for the public to understand the rules that apply to them. Movement up and down through the levels is not driven solely by the infection rate. Local epidemiology, including rates of change and the demographic profile of cases, and insight including hospital capacity, are all taken into account when making the judgement about whether an area should be moved to a different alert level.