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 ensure that covid-19 home antibody tests (a) are safe to use and (b) provide accurate results.

The Government is working to develop solutions for at-home testing (lateral flow tests) as well as lab-based testing (lab-based serology / immunoassay testing) to assess whether a person has had the virus which causes COVID-19. The desired ‘profile’ or characteristics of these tests including their intended use, target populations and safety and performance-related characteristics can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-tests-and-testing-kits-for-coronavirus-covid-19-work/target-product-profile-antibody-tests-to-help-determine-if-people-have-recent-infection-to-sars-cov-2-version-2

Since the end of May, lab-based antibody tests have been available to all National Health Service staff that want one using assays provided by several commercial providers. The results of Public Health England’s assessment of these assays can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-laboratory-evaluations-of-serological-assays