Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the covid-19 lateral flow tests (LFTs) provided to local authorities as part of the Community Testing Programme can be used by local employees to test at home; what discussions he has had with directors of public health on the potential merits of permitting local authorities to enable those employees to access LFTs at home to take account of different working patterns; and if he will make a statement.

Lateral flow devices are currently deployed in supervised settings by trained staff involved in processing tests using the devices and reading the results. Once the approvals and technology are in place, we can allow tests to be taken home from the workplace or school and ultimately for tests delivered to the home or collected locally.