An end to facemasks and health passports

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Department of Health and Social Care should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

when will it be possible to go shopping normally again or go to a pub or elsewhere without fear of being challenged over facemasks?
and when will it be possible to go shopping normally again or go to a pub or elsewhere without having to have a health passport or vaccine card?
basically when will we be able to just go in any shop and buy what we need again?

Yours faithfully,

craig smith

Department of Health and Social Care

Our ref: DE-1316446  
 
Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your correspondence, I am replying on behalf of the
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
 
As we are experiencing extremely high volumes of correspondence due to the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we must regretfully inform you that we are not
currently able to provide an individual response to every enquiry we
receive from the public.
 
We are, however, continuing to record all the correspondence we receive so
that we can track the issues being raised by the public.
 
I am sorry that this falls short of the service we strive to offer, but
the unprecedented situation in which we find ourselves has required a
change in our approach to handling correspondence.
 
If your enquiry is in relation to the pandemic, the Government has
launched a COVID-19 ‘hub’, which can be found at [1]www.gov.uk/coronavirus
and is regularly updated. The hub offers all the Government’s latest
advice and guidance, a link to the NHS website, a portal for those
offering assistance, a tracking service displaying the latest information
on cases in the UK, and an email alert service so people can stay up to
date with all the latest measures.
 
If you have symptoms of COVID-19 you must get tested as soon as possible.
The swab test takes less than a minute and is pain-free. Results from test
sites are generally received within 24 hours of the test’s being
administered. Further information, including what symptoms to look out
for, can be found at [2]this website.
 
If your query is related to information or clarification over the
Government’s vaccine rollout, you may find the information you are looking
for on the [3]UK COVID-19 vaccines delivery plan.
 
If your business is interested in helping the Government increase
COVID-19 testing capacity, please visit [4]this Government website. Please
note the service that was set up for businesses to offer other
COVID-19 support has closed.
 
If you are a clinician looking to support the NHS with the COVID-19
response, please visit [5]this website, where you will find a variety of
required roles for both registered and unregistered individuals.

If you are a clinician who has retired within the last six years and you
would like to volunteer to join the NHS COVID-19 vaccination team, please
visit [6]this website.

If you are a member of the public wishing to volunteer during the
pandemic, please visit [7]this website for more information. 

The Department of Health and Social Care does not process complaints about
the NHS or social services. If you wish to make a complaint about a
healthcare professional, an NHS organisation or a social care provider,
please visit
[8]www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-the-nhs/how-to-complain-to-the-nhs.

If you consider your situation to be of a particularly sensitive or urgent
nature that does require a bespoke response, please submit your enquiry
again, quoting ‘Sensitive’ and the above case reference in the subject
line. We will, if deemed appropriate, aim to send a response to the
majority of such correspondence within 18 working days.

Yours sincerely,
Daniel Belmore
Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries
Department of Health and Social Care

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FreedomofInformation, Department of Health and Social Care

Dear Mr Smith,

Thank you for your email.

The Freedom of Information Act only applies to recorded information such as paper or electronic archive material. As your correspondence asked for general information rather than requesting recorded information or documentation, it did not fall under the provisions of the Act. It will be answered as general correspondence in due course.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
Department of Health and Social Care

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