Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their testing prioritisation plan for COVID-19 antibody tests; and how does this plan compare to the strategy for COVID-19 real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.

The Government has announced the start of its national antibody testing programme, with initial plans to provide antibody tests for National Health Service and care staff, as well as hospital patients and care residents on the basis of clinical advice, in England from the end of May. The United Kingdom Government has purchased tests on behalf of the devolved administrations, and each devolved nation is deciding how to use its test allocation. This strategy, in which NHS patients and staff will be amongst the first to benefit from testing, is similar to the approach taken to roll out RT-PCR tests.