PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Coronavirus: Public Houses and Retail Trade (4 June 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the scientific evidential basis was for the decision to allow non-essential shops to reopen on 12 April 2021 and to allow pubs to serve customers outside only.

Asked by:
Charlotte Nichols (Labour)

Throughout the pandemic the Government has had to balance the economic and social implications of restrictions with the need to protect public health when considering packages of measures to control the virus. These are complex decisions which take into account a range of health, economic, and social and wellbeing metrics when considering the design of measures but it is difficult analytically to isolate individual sectors or measures. We keep measures under constant review to ensure they reflect the latest science and clinical data.

The Government published a wide range of economic and social data in the ‘COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021’ roadmap and in the data annex supporting the roadmap publication. The roadmap is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963491/COVID-19_Response_-_Spring_2021.pdf

The data annex is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963276/COVID-19_RESPONSE_-SPRING_2021__Data_Annex.pdf

This, along with wider scientific advice from the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies, contributed to the decisions on the order of easing and the overall pace of the roadmap, which included the reopening of non-essential retail and outdoor hospitality at step two.

Answered by:
Jo Churchill (Conservative)
24 June 2021