Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the context of rising numbers of covid-19 infections in the UK, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact on the general public of ending free universal symptomatic and asymptomatic covid-19 testing from April 2022.

The success of the COVID-19 vaccination and booster programme and the availability of antiviral treatments has reduced the risk of severe illness or hospitalisation for the majority of the population. For those unable to mount a full immune response, testing pathways to evidence based effective COVID-19 treatments will be available. We will continue to monitor prevalence and other factors, keeping testing policies under review.