Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional resources he plans to provide for care homes to carry out lateral flow testing on staff, residents and visitors.

The Department is providing a tailored training and guidance package for care homes in order to support them to establish effective testing regimes. We have made £4.6 billion available to local authorities so they can address pressures on local services caused by the pandemic, including in adult social care.

In addition, the Infection Control Fund, set up in May, has been extended until March 2021, with an extra £546 million for the care sector to take key steps to improve infection prevention and control. As per the grant conditions, this funding may be used for supporting safe visiting in care homes and for ensuring that staff who need to attend work for the purposes of being tested for COVID-19 are paid their usual wages to do so.