Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis was for his decision (a) to implement mass covid-19 testing of secondary school pupils in London and the South-East and (b) not to implement that testing in (i) Yorkshire and the Humber and (ii) other regions of England.

The decision to implement testing of secondary school pupils in London and the South East on 10 December was based on public health recommendations informed by a comparative analysis by region of the following factors: case rates in all age groups and, in particular, among over 60 year olds; how quickly case rates were rising or falling; the number of positive cases as a proportion of tests taken; current and projected pressure on the National Health Service; and other circumstances such as local outbreaks. At the time, the case rates in London and the South East were 271 and 217 respectively per 100,000 population, compared with 208 in the region with the next highest case rates.