Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) access to and (b) take up of weekly covid-19 tests for domiciliary care staff.

Anyone who is symptomatic can access a free test. Domiciliary care staff with symptoms can be tested for COVID-19 through the self-referral portal on the GOV.UK website.

Domiciliary care staff are not required to participate in the weekly COVID-19 testing regime for care homes as the Public Health England pilot study found that the COVID-19 prevalence among domiciliary care workers was similar to prevalence in the general population.

We will continue to review and prioritise our testing policies and develop our strategy for testing in adult social care, based on the available testing capacity and scientific advice regarding relative priorities in order to limit the spread and save lives.