Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce saliva rather than swab testing for COVID-19 for (1) the general population, and (2) vulnerable groups that might find the swab test particularly difficult including (a) children, and (b) patients with dementia or other cognitive impairments.

To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library