Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of using trained covid detection dogs to identify covid-19 infections; and if he will urgently set out a timescale for deployment of those dogs.

The Department has been funding a clinical trial investigating whether COVID-19 can be detected by dogs. This work has been undertaken by a coalition including the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the charity Medical Detection Dogs.

We have received the results from phase one of the trial.

NHS Test and Trace is engaging with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Medical Detection Dogs about potential next phases of the trial.