Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to mitigate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 lockdown for people who are shielding or over the age of 70.

The Government will continue to ensure support is available for those who need it for as long as people are advised to follow shielding guidance. We know this is challenging guidance to follow and we want to ensure that people who are shielding continue to receive the right advice for them at a time.

From 1 June those shielding may wish to spend time outdoors once a day. This can be beneficial for mental and physical wellbeing for people of all ages, particularly those shielding alone. The advice is for people who are shielding to spend time outdoors alone or with members of their own household or, for those shielding alone, with one person from another household.

To ensure vulnerable individuals, including those shielding and the over 70s, we have put a core support offer in place to help them stay at home where they wished to follow this advice, including delivering over 2 million free food boxes, providing priority supermarket delivery services, providing care, ensuring people can get medicines delivered to their homes and enlisting the help of National Health Service volunteer responders in delivering shopping and calling people for a ‘check in and chat’.

We have also announced £5 million of funding for mental health charities to support adults and children and a further £4.2 million is being awarded to mental health charities as part of the Government’s £750 million package of support for the voluntary sector during the pandemic.