Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to stop fake positive COVID-19 test results being used to require school pupils to self-isolate.

It is important that everyone using lateral flow devices (LFD) uses them in the correct way to ensure we can control and slow the spread of COVID-19. On their return to school or college from 8 March, pupils and students were tested three times at an on-site asymptomatic testing site. This gave pupils and students the opportunity to get used to swabbing in a supervised environment.

In line with the latest public health advice, it is important to continue regular testing and reporting in order to detect cases of COVID-19. Around one in three people with COVID-19 experience no symptoms and rapid testing with lateral flow tests helps to identify positive cases that would otherwise be missed. Antigen LFD tests have a very high specificity, possibly as high as 99.97%, which means three false positives in every 10,000 LFDs. Despite this, due to the lower prevalence, the probability of a false positive from an LFD becomes higher. We are mitigating this by asking people to confirm a positive antigen LFD test with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.

From Step 4 of the roadmap, nurseries, schools and colleges will not routinely be required to undertake contact tracing for children and young people. Instead, pupils and students who test positive will be subject to the normal test and trace process, which will identify close contacts. This will be limited to close contacts. Unless they test positive, children and those who are double vaccinated will not be required to isolate from 16 August, if they are identified as a close contact, and instead will be advised to take a PCR test. Further guidance will be provided shortly. Self-isolation continues for those who have tested positive for COVID-19 and for those with symptoms.