Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason Lighthouse Laboratories are not required to report covid-19 testing cases and data directly to Public Health England.

Individual laboratories do not report to Public Health England as they operate without any personally identifiable information and could not complete the reporting process as they do not have the data required.

Laboratories connect to the National Pathology Exchange (NPEx) as a mechanism to return test outcomes to the Test and Trace programme. NPEx interfaces with the digital platform, NHS Business Service Authority and other systems or platforms as necessary to complete the notification of patients and all statutory reporting processes.