Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of providing daily lateral flow tests to schools and other education settings to prevent pupils who remain covid-19 negative following a positive covid-19 contact from being required to isolate for 10 days.

Between March and June this year, over 200 secondary schools and colleges participated in the independently monitored, voluntary trial of Daily Contact Testing, which was approved by Public Health England’s independent Research and Ethics Governance Group.

The aim of the trial was to keep pupils in face-to-face education, whilst reducing the risk of community transmission of COVID-19. The trial consisted of two randomised groups, a control group and an intervention group.

• The control group quarantined contacts of positive cases
• The intervention group enabled daily contact testing of contacts, instead of 10 days isolation

The trial concluded on 25 June 2021, and its findings are expected shortly. The Department has not been informed of the results of the independent trial in order to protect the integrity of the study. The trial’s findings need to be evaluated fully before any decisions can be made by the Government on how Daily Contact Testing may be used in the future.