Thank you for contacting me about the extension of Covid-19 restrictions for a further four weeks.

The local vaccination programme has made immense progress and most of my constituents have had both of their jabs.  It is wonderful that Public Health England have such positive data about their effectiveness, including against the Delta variant.

People have made huge sacrifices over the last 16 months, following the rules and helping to keep the pressure off the NHS and with the hard work done, I now believe it is time we trusted people, who have in the main had two jabs, to act responsibly while returning to doing the things we love. The NHS locally is not seeing hospitalisations with COVID-19 in any great numbers and local cases in care homes and among the over 60s are non-existent.

I have had extensive correspondence from constituents who are further impacted by this extension and I continue to share specific concerns with Government Ministers.

I feel that it is time the Government took the Conservative approach of trusting people to make responsible choices about their own well-being, based on their own situation and vaccination status.

I voted against  the latest extension to very prescriptive restrictions as this does not take into account the progress of vaccination for so many local people in West Worcestershire. I have urged the Government to trust the vaccination programme and to allow us to return to making personal choices about how we behave without continued state controls.

Thank you for contacting me on this important matter.