Covid-19 Response

Clive Efford Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Yes. Kevin Fenton, who is the London lead for public health in Public Health England, is undertaking exactly the review for which my hon. Friend asks. We propose to publish it in the coming weeks.

[Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab) [V]]

The Government have promised to carry out routine testing in care homes, yet my local authority tells me that there is a shortage of the home-test kits needed to do that and fears that such kits will be diverted to fulfil another of the Government’s pledges on tracking and tracing as more become available. Yet again, the Government have made a claim that is not borne out by the situation in our care homes. By what date will we have enough home-test kits to carry out routine testing in care homes?

[Matt Hancock]

I am happy to ensure that my team contacts the hon. Gentleman’s local authority, not least to explain that home testing is only one of the avenues available. In fact, much more testing in care homes is done through the mobile testing units, with the mobile unit going to the care home, or by the satellite units, from which a whole batch is taken to the care home, than through the home-testing channel, which is designed for sending an individual test or a small number of tests to an individual house.