No good reason for ‘rule of six’ – but ministers still backed it

‘The scientific evidence is clear that young people are less likely than adults to contract Covid-19’

THE Government knew there was no “robust rationale” for including children in the rule of six but backed the controversial policy regardless, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The rule, which limited the number of people who could gather in one place, was severely criticised by the children’s commissioner because the way it was drawn up kept large households in effective lockdown.

Scotland and Wales included an exemption for children aged under 12, so they did not count toward the overall number of people allowed to gather.

However, the Government refused to implement a similar exemption in England until April 2021, keeping thousands of children apart from their friends and grandparents.

Messages seen by this newspaper show that ministers knew there was no good reason to include children in the rule of six, even as they were drawing up plans to manage the second wave of the pandemic.

Helen Whately, the minister for adult social care, told Matt Hancock on Oct 11 2020 that she wanted to “loosen on children under 12” in Tier 1, as “it would make such a difference to families and there isn’t a robust rationale for it”.

Mr Hancock, who was then health secretary, did not oppose Mr Whately’s view but instead informed her that in Downing Street they “don’t want to go there on this … as in No10. Also on curfew – they don’t want to shift an inch”.

The Government used the rule of six policy to control transmission during the pandemic, introducing it for all indoor and outdoor meetings in September 2020 and then implementing stricter versions when the tier system was introduced the following month.

It remained in place as Britain entered its second and third lockdowns.

The Government’s insistence that the six-person limit should include under12s meant that children who lived in households of six or more were unable to see their grandparents. Meanwhile, families of five were forced to only see one grandparent at a time, even if the grandparents lived together.

On Sept 28 2020 Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner, strongly criticised the policy and called for an exemption for all under-12s in the UK, amid growing evidence that months of isolation had a huge impact on children’s mental health.

At the same time, scientists found little evidence of elevated rates of transmission among children, and those that did contract Covid were not severely affected.

A report by the commissioner said: “The scientific evidence is clear that young people are less likely than adults to contract Covid-19 and play a smaller role in spreading the virus, and that it is very rare for children to become seriously ill after contracting Covid-19.

“And yet children faced a cocktail of secondary risks which means that many have suffered disproportionately as a result of the crisis.”

The exchanges between Ms Whately and Mr Hancock are likely to anger the nearly one million households with three or more children who found themselves isolated for longer than other families.

Grandparents missed out on time with their grandchildren, and children were unable to play with their friends as normal. It is not clear from Ms Whately’s exchange with Mr Hancock why Downing Street was so set on including children in the six-person headcount.

However, an earlier conversation between officials suggests that the Government preferred not to deviate from the rule of six because it was easier to communicate.

Prof Sir Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, told Mr Hancock in May 2020: “On a separate point no 10 v keen on 6 people rather than 2 households for Comms [sic] reasons and we don’t have a strong reason to push back so I think we will finally go that way.”

“That’s fine by me,” Mr Hancock responded.