Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ensure that Care Quality Commission staff carrying out care home inspections are regularly tested for covid-19 to help prevent the transmission of that virus by those staff.

We recognise the need to ensure professionals are able to visit care homes safely. We will begin weekly PCR testing of Care Quality Commission inspectors shortly.

Any symptomatic member of staff is eligible for testing through the self-referral portal.

We will continue to review our social care testing strategy for adult social care in light of the latest evidence and available capacity.