Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the speed of the return of covid-19 test results to care home residents and staff.

We have recently undertaken a review of our care home sample-to-result turnaround time. We have identified and commenced implementation of a number of logistical improvements which will shorten the transit times from care home to laboratories and will enable faster provision of results.