Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to sanction private companies that breach their contract by failing to provide covid-19 testing kits in a timely manner for day 2 and day 8 testing.

We monitor all providers’ performance, including their delivery and testing services. We are taking rapid action with companies where appropriate. Those providers providing inadequate services receive a five-day warning to demonstrate they have rectified their service, or they are removed from GOV.UK.

All private providers listed on GOV.UK have demonstrated compliance with the relevant minimum standards for their commercial provision of testing. This includes undergoing the three-staged UKAS accreditation process if they are providing sample collection and/or test analysis services.