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Coronavirus: Travellers

Question for Department of Health and Social Care

UIN HL4385, tabled on 13 May 2020

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 21 April (HL3176), when health guidance for members of Gypsy, Traveller and Boater communities will be disseminated; and in what format.

Answered on

1 June 2020

We have been in close contact with Gypsy and Traveller Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations and are working hard to support these communities through the pandemic. VCS organisations have used existing Public Health England (PHE) guidance as a basis for producing targeted guidance and videos to inform and advise communities.

In collaboration with the Local Government Association, Association of Directors of Public Health and NHS England and NHS Improvement, PHE has collated a suite of resources ‘COVID-19: Place-based approach to reducing health inequalities’ to complement existing work being led at a local level.

On 11 April the Minister of State for Home Affairs and Housing, Communities and Local Government, the noble Lord Greenhalgh, wrote to all local authority chief executives to highlight that some Gypsies and Travellers may need specific support to enable them to access to essential basic amenities such as water, sanitation and waste disposal facilities. A copy of the letter is attached.