Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the minutes of the fifty-fifth meeting of SAGE on covid-19 on 3 September 2020, if he has developed a national strategy defining key principles for additional covid-19 testing in universities.

We have quickly established walk-through sites and deployed mobile test sites so that almost all universities are within three miles of an in-person test site and the majority within one and a half miles, allowing staff and students to get access to tests should they develop symptoms. In cases of outbreaks we are working with universities to deliver large batches of home test kits which can then be distributed to students isolating in their households or halls to residence to test themselves. The Department for Education has updated its guidance in line with the latest public health advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses