Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress the Government has made on mass lateral flow testing of university students; and if he will make a statement.
The Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care have worked in partnership with higher education (HE) institutions to deliver an asymptomatic mass testing programme to ensure that students could travel home from university in December and that students reading a subject listed within the guidance as essential in order to support the pipeline of future workers (as well as those with exemptions as outlined in guidance) can travel back to university safely and with confidence while protecting themselves, their friends, family and wider community.
Officials worked with the sector to ensure that almost all HE institutions were ready to provide 2 COVID-19 tests to students that returned in January 2021. I also wrote to Vice Chancellors on 21 January 2021, announcing that providers should commence regular ongoing lateral flow testing from 25 January 2021.