Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 August 2020 to Question 78605, whether the weekly covid-19 testing of care home staff and testing of residents every 28 days in all care homes without outbreaks through Pillar 2 referred to in that Answer commenced from 6 July 2020 onwards; and whether the supply of covid-19 tests is adequate to meet demand.

We started rolling out regular retesting for residents and staff of care homes for over 65s and dementia from 6 July. We provided testing kits to all care homes for older people and people with dementia who have registered for regular retesting kits by 7 September.

All remaining adult care homes were able to apply for regular retesting from 31 August.

We are meeting demand and issuing more than 100,000 tests a day to care homes across the country.