Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the study published by Imperial College London on 24 April 2020, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of weekly testing of health and social care staff regardless of whether they have covid-19 symptoms.

National Health Service staff are prioritised for testing should they exhibit symptoms. In line with the Chief Medical Officer’s guidance, asymptomatic staff are tested in situations where there was an untoward incident, outbreak, or high prevalence of the virus. Asymptomatic staff are also being periodically tested as part of Public Health England’s SIREN study.