Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the level of confidence that care homes employing agency staff on an emergency basis can have that those staff will have had a covid-19 test in the last seven days.

All agency staff working in care homes are eligible to access weekly COVID-19 testing through the care home they work in. Regular retesting was initially rolled out for care homes specialising in care for over 65s and/or those with dementia. All other adult care homes are now eligible to place orders for test kits to begin regular retesting.

The testing process does not differentiate between agency staff and permanent care home staff.