THE Government has been accused of ignoring its own scientists after documents showed that a “circuit-breaker” lockdown was recommended for England by expert advisers three weeks ago.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) suggested immediately introducing a national lockdown lasting between two and three weeks to halt the rapid spread of the virus, with the Government’s failure to act on the advice branded “alarming” by Labour.

Downing Street insisted that “robust but targeted and proportionate” action had been taken in September, including the rule of six and the 10pm hospitality curfew.

The SAGE document, dated September 21 and released hours after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his three-tier system of alert levels for England yesterday, said a package of interventions was needed to reverse the “exponential” rise in cases.

The paper set out a shortlist of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) that should be considered for “immediate” introduction, and also said university and college teaching should all be done online unless face-to-face teaching was "absolutely essential", at a time when students were heading to university.

Top of the list was a short period of lockdown known as a circuit-breaker “to return incidence to low levels”. This was followed by advice to work from home for all those who can, which the Prime Minister did follow last month.

Third on the list was “banning all contact within the home with members of other households (except members of a support bubble)”, and fourth was the closure of all bars, restaurants, cafes, indoor gyms, and personal services such as hairdressers, both of which the Government did not act upon.

The final measure was that all university and college teaching has “to be online unless face-to-face teaching is absolutely essential”.

Attendees of the September 21 meeting, held on Zoom, included the Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty.

The document says both local and national measures are needed, adding: “Measures should not be applied in too specific a geographical area.”

Condemning the Government's actions, shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “The Government now needs to urgently explain why it ignored its own scientists and what it will be doing to get control of the virus.”

A Government spokesperson said: “We took robust but targeted and proportionate action in September, including introducing the rule of six, restrictions to hospitality opening hours, and advice for people to work from home where they can, alongside tougher enforcement.

“This was carefully judged to protect lives and reduce the transmission of the virus whilst minimising the impact to livelihoods, and followed extensive engagement including with scientific advisers.”

The SAGE details emerged after Mr Johnson warned that rising coronavirus cases and hospital admissions were flashing like “dashboard warnings in a passenger jet” as he set out the three-tier system.

The system is set to come into force tomorrow, subject to a House of Commons vote today.