Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to surge testing for the South African variant of covid-19 which commenced on 1 February 2021, how many tests have been distributed; and what proportion of those tests were (a) not returned, (b) returned unopened and (c) returned spoiled in (i) EN10, (ii) W7, (iii) N17, (iv) CR4, (v) PR9, (vi) ME15, (vii) GU21 and (viii) WS2 areas and in each (A) postcode and (B) postcode sector in those areas.

The Department does not hold the information in the format requested. All polymerase chain reaction test results in surge testing regions are included in the weekly statistics published by Public Health England on the number of confirmed COVID-19 test results, which is available at the following link:

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing