Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the UK Health Security Agency’s observation that “in the UK, the current surveillance systems do not support an assessment of comparative severity between variants”, published on 14 September; and what plans they have to increase PCR testing and COVID-19 surveillance in England.

Trends in disease severity and outcomes can be monitored over time through hospital data. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) receives vital data from those who are admitted to hospital with symptoms, and UKHSA is using genome sequencing to detect and assess severity and vaccine effectiveness against new variants.

While reduced polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing in the community limits comparisons of variant severity, surveillance metrics based on current testing continue to provide useful indicators of recent trends.

UKHSA retains laboratory capacity and an ability to scale PCR and lateral flow device testing back up should it be needed.

Planning for the restart of community surveillance for the winter season, when health pressures usually rise, is in progress. A national surveillance report is published every two weeks, and this will increase to once every week in the winter season.