Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2021 to Question 122899 on Coronavirus: screening, in what format his Department (a) presents, (b) holds or (c) publishes data related to the information requested; what clinical or scientific evidence underpins his Department's policy on Innova lateral flow devices; and how much and what proportion of funding allocated to those devices has been disbursed.

The Government has published ‘Liverpool COVID-19 community testing pilot: interim evaluation report summary’, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/liverpool-covid-19-community-testing-pilot-interim-evaluation-report-summary/liverpool-covid-19-community-testing-pilot-interim-evaluation-report-summary

This is an interim report from an evaluation led by the University of Liverpool into the pilot of community open-access testing for COVID-19 among those without symptoms. A final assessment and a more detailed report on the effectiveness of mass testing and the data to support will follow in early 2021.

The Department cannot comment on individual contracts due to commercial sensitivity.