Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether physiotherapists and other healthcare staff providing patient-facing services in (a) charitable hospices, (b) care homes and (c) community services will have the same access to asymptomatic covid-19 testing as NHS employees.

Since November 2020, twice weekly lateral flow device (LFD) testing has been available for all National Health Service patient-facing staff who may conduct visits in the community including to care homes and charitable hospices. In addition, all hospices and care homes in England have access to LFD tests, which can be used to test all visiting professionals prior to admission into those vulnerable settings.