Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the availability of covid-19 tests in (a) the North West, (b) Liverpool city region, (c) Merseyside, (d) Wirral and (e) Wallasey constituency; and if he will make a statement.

We are increasing our testing capacity, both through current swab testing and new, rapid lateral flow tests to cut the spread of COVID-19 nationwide.

The United Kingdom’s daily testing capacity passed the 500,000 mark on 31 October. Testing capacity in the UK across all pillars between 29 October and 4 November was at 4,367,049 tests, an increase of 21% compared to the previous week.

Our mass testing pilot in Liverpool continues and will help inform any future rollout of large-scale population testing. Any confirmed expansion will be announced in due course.