Over the Christmas period many of us have been able to take a well-earned break from work, but as 2022 dawned, as well as celebrating the New Year, I expect we were all wondering what COVID-19 would bring, as numbers jumped alarmingly to hit over 240,000 new cases on 29 December.

Expecting a whole draft of new legislation to be required to implement at speed, it was a relief to see the threat of the Omicron variant starting to recede without needing substantial new public health restrictions in England, although the NHS still has many pressures to deal with.