Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the current rate is for false (a) positives and (b) negatives from (i) PCR and (ii) lateral flow covid-19 tests.

The current tests are very specific and the risk of false positives where the test is reacting to other viruses is extremely low. Like any diagnostic test there is a possibility of a false negative or false positive result, but this is very small. Independent, confirmatory testing of positive samples indicates a test specificity that exceeds 99.3% or a false positive rate of 1% and additional guidance has been provided to laboratories to reduce the rate even further.

Lateral flow tests go through a rigorous evaluation by the country’s leading scientists with the latest data showing a sensitivity of 57.5% generally and 84.3% in people with high viral loads. They are accurate, reliable and successfully identify those with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic and could pass on the virus.