Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that NHS Trusts make use of independent sector facilities to provide community covid-19 vaccinations in Gloucestershire.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We are grateful for the offers from businesses up and down the country, including supermarkets and sporting arenas, to use their venues as vaccination centres. NHS England and NHS Improvement have been working to identify partners and work with those whose facilities have been identified as suitable. NHS England and NHS Improvement are ensuring that all offers are appropriately considered, alongside local leaders, including from local authorities, to understand potential partnerships that build on the existing network.
We have many partnerships already in place. Seven large scale vaccination centres opened on 11 January, a further ten opened on 18 January and over 30 opened on 25 January. The centres offer an alternative to general practice and hospital services and can each deliver thousands of vaccinations every week. The initial sites were chosen from those ready to vaccinate large numbers of people quickly to give a geographical spread covering as many people as possible.
Currently, in England, 96% of the population is within 10 miles of a vaccine service and by the end of January, everyone will live within 10 miles of a vaccination service. In a small number of highly rural areas, the vaccination centre will be a mobile unit. Regularly updated data on the locations of hospital hubs and local vaccination services is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/hospital-hubs-and-local-vaccination-services/
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with supermarkets to ensure that they are covid-19 secure environments.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Secretary of State has covered Covid security issues in recent meetings with supermarket chief executives. This subject has also been a key focus of the regular forums that bring together officials and supermarket representatives. In all these meetings the supermarkets have emphasised their commitment to ensuring a Covid-secure environment for their customers and their staff. We will continue to work with them to support the steps they are taking to encourage customers to comply with Government rules and guidance.
The Secretary of State also wrote to those working in our food and drink supply chains recently, thanking them for the work they have done throughout the pandemic.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to (a) encourage supermarkets to prioritise shielding customers and (b) discourage increases in costs of at-home deliveries.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
(a) Defra is continuing to work closely with supermarkets to provide clinically extremely vulnerable individuals in England with priority access to supermarket delivery slots. When the tiered system was in operation, any clinically extremely vulnerable person living in a Tier Three or Tier Four local area who did not already have priority access to delivery slots was still able to register for this support through the GOV.UK website: www.gov.uk/coronavirus-shielding-support.
During the third lockdown, all clinically extremely vulnerable people are able to register for priority access to delivery slots with seven supermarkets: Asda, Iceland, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose. All clinically extremely vulnerable individuals who have registered through GOV.UK will retain their priority access to delivery slots until at least March 2021.
(b) Defra is continuing to hold regular conversations with each of the seven supermarkets participating in the priority access to online deliveries offer: Asda, Iceland, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose. The department uses these meetings as an opportunity to convey any concerns raised by charities or local authorities around topics such as delivery charges. Although Defra cannot legally dictate the delivery costs charged by supermarkets, our regular conversations ensure that supermarkets understand the impact that delivery charges can have in preventing a clinically extremely vulnerable person from being able to access food.
Alongside encouraging supermarkets to consider the impact delivery charges can have on vulnerable people, the department also monitors delivery charges and circulates this information to local authorities to allow them to advise their residents accordingly.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the covid-19 security practices of supermarkets compared with the first lockdown; and what additional steps he plans to advise supermarkets to take to reduce the risk of infection of (a) staff and (b) customers.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The UK Government has regular meetings with the supermarkets, including at Ministerial level, on Covid-19 issues. This includes discussions about the measures that supermarkets have put in place to ensure a Covid-secure environment for their customers and their staff.
We will continue to work with the supermarkets to support these activities, including how best to manage capacity in stores and to encourage the use of face coverings. We welcome the recent announcements from a number of supermarkets on the steps they are taking to encourage customers to comply with Government rules and guidance. These emphasise the importance of solo shopping, maintaining social distancing and the need to wear a face covering unless medically exempt. It is the responsibility of all us to follow these instructions.
The Secretary of State also wrote to those working in our food and drink supply chains recently, thanking them for the work they have done throughout the pandemic.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will have discussions with supermarkets to request that security guards act to encourage the use of masks by customers and restrict the number of customers in their stores.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The UK Government has regular meetings with the supermarkets, including at Ministerial level, on Covid-19 issues. This includes discussions about the measures that have supermarkets have put in place to ensure a Covid-secure environment for their customers and their staff.
We will continue to work with the supermarkets to support these activities, including how best to manage capacity in stores and to encourage the use of face coverings. On the latter we welcome the recent announcements from a number of supermarkets on the steps they are taking to encourage customers to comply with Government rules. The Secretary of State also wrote to those working in our food and drink supply chains recently, thanking them for the work they have done throughout the pandemic.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with supermarket retailers on the steps retailers are taking to ensure that clinically extremely vulnerable people have continued access to priority online shopping deliveries over the Christmas period.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Defra is continuing to work closely with supermarkets to provide clinically extremely vulnerable individuals in England with priority access to supermarket delivery slots. Between 2 December and 5 January, any clinically extremely vulnerable person living in a Tier Three or Tier Four local area who did not already have priority access to delivery slots was still able to register for this support through the Government website: www.gov.uk/coronavirus-shielding-support.
During the third lockdown, all clinically extremely vulnerable people are able to register for priority access to delivery slots with seven supermarkets: Asda, Iceland, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose. All clinically extremely vulnerable individuals who have registered through the Government website will retain their priority access to delivery slots until at least March 2021.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with supermarket retailers on ensuring that clinically extremely vulnerable people are not being subject to excessive charges when booking priority online shopping deliveries.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
DEFRA is continuing to hold regular conversations with each of the seven supermarkets participating in the priority access to online deliveries offer: Asda, Iceland, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose. The department uses these meetings as an opportunity to convey any concerns raised by charities or Local Authorities around topics such as delivery charges. Although DEFRA cannot legally dictate the delivery costs charged by supermarkets, our regular conversations ensure that supermarkets understand the impact that delivery charges can have.
Alongside encouraging supermarkets to seriously consider the impact delivery charges can have on clinically extremely vulnerable people, the department also monitors delivery charges and circulates this information to Local Authorities to allow them to advise their residents accordingly.
Asked by: Darren Henry (Conservative - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the extent to which supermarkets have been covid-secure during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government welcomes the tremendous efforts and expense supermarkets have made making their businesses COVID-Secure. We have worked closely with retailers to develop comprehensive guidance to assist them in the safe operation of their business.
The best available Public Health England and NHS Track and Trace data shows there is at present no evidence of significant increased risk of virus transmission in retail premises.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to work with online grocery providers to ensure that people who are clinically extremely vulnerable to covid-19 can access priority food delivery slots throughout December 2020.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Defra is continuing to work closely with supermarkets to provide clinically extremely vulnerable individuals in England with priority access to supermarket delivery slots. During the second lockdown (from 5 November to 2 December), all clinically extremely vulnerable people were able to register for priority access to delivery slots with seven supermarkets: Asda, Iceland, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose.
From 2 December onwards, any clinically extremely vulnerable person living in a Tier Three (very high risk) local area who does not already have priority access to delivery slots will still be able to register for this support through the GOV.UK website: www.gov.uk/coronavirus-shielding-support. All clinically extremely vulnerable individuals who have registered through GOV.UK will retain their priority access to delivery slots until at least March 2021.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will issue guidance to (a) supermarkets and (b) other large retailers on maintaining appropriate (i) social distancing and (ii) other safeguards under the local covid-19 Tier restrictions.
Answered by Paul Scully
Our Safer Working guidance was updated on 26 November to reflect the new tiers.
Our shops and branches guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/shops-and-branches.