Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of redundancies at Iqvia on the UK's ability to take swab samples for covid-19 testing.

The COVID-19 Infection Survey is run by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in collaboration with the Department, the University of Oxford, the University of Manchester, Public Health England, the Wellcome Trust, IQVIA and the UK Biocentre. IQVIA are contracted by the ONS to deliver the required services for the COVID-19 Infection Survey. The ONS will continue to ensure targets for swab tests are reached, as required by the Key Performance Indicators and Service Levels agreed within the ONS/IQVIA contract, and ensure performance maintained at the agreed level for the duration of the contract.