Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they estimate that family members and friends of care home residents will be provided with twice weekly testing to enable them to visit; and whether they still plan to implement that policy before 25 December.

We want to bring an end to the pain of separation and help care homes bring families and loved ones together. The launch of visitor testing is a crucial step to making that happen.

Testing is only one way of minimising the risk of visiting a care home. If a visitor has a negative test, is wearing appropriate personal protective equipment and following other infection control measures, then it will be possible for family and friends to visit care homes.

Following a successful trial in 20 care homes, we have started the phased rollout of new rapid tests to all care homes across England to support visiting. The first 385 care homes are now able to begin testing visitors and we aim to roll this out to all care homes by Christmas.