This week, the Prime Minister announced the details of his much-anticipated Covid-19 Roadmap for England.

The four-step plan lays out a set of dates at which we hope to gradually reopen our businesses, spend time with loved ones and steadily return to a more normal way of life.

Crucially, there is a five-week period between each step to allow for the effect of the previous stage of relaxations to be assessed.

The Government will then measure the evidence against four key tests.

Those tests are: 1) The vaccine deployment programme continues successfully,

2) Evidence shows vaccines are sufficiently effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths in those vaccinated,

3) Infection rates do not risk a surge in hospitalisations which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHS, 4) Our assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new "variants of concern".

The Prime Minister and his team have rightly designed the roadmap to “guide us – cautiously but irreversibly – towards reclaiming our freedoms while doing all we can to protect our people against Covid.”

As the Government have made clear throughout the pandemic, ensuring our children lose as little education as possible is a national priority. Therefore, I am pleased that the first stage of Step 1 will see schools and colleges in England open for all students on March 8.

This step will also see rules widened to allow for meeting one other person in an outdoor public space for recreation – loosening the current rule of only being able to meet one other person for outdoor exercise.

On March 29 (the second date for Step 1), rules will be relaxed to allow organised outdoor sport, children’s activities and outdoor parent and child groups. A new rule of six will also allow up to six people – or two households – to meet outdoors.

Then, after a five-week period, and if the data allows, Step 2 will see all retail, personal care, libraries, community centres and outdoor hospitality re-open on April 12. Restrictions on weddings and wakes will also be relaxed slightly, and domestic overnight stays (household only) will be allowed.

A minimum of five weeks after this, possibly on May 17, Step 3 will see indoor hospitality, entertainment and sport reintroduced. Indoor gatherings of up to six people will also be allowed and restrictions on large events loosened.

If the first three steps go to plan – and all four tests are still being met – Step 4 could see all restrictions lifted as early as June 21.

The majority of the British people, including here in Dudley South, have worked so hard over the past 12 months to keep Covid at bay and play their part in the fight against the virus.

But we haven’t beaten the virus just yet – so if people don’t maintain the good practices they have built into their lives this past year, progress could be set back and more lives unnecessarily lost.

We have come this far. A plan is in place. The end is in sight.