Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 tests return a false-positive result in relation (1) to the total number of tests conducted, and (2) as a ratio of positive results in England; and how such figures compare with the figures for such results in (1) Northern Ireland, (2) Scotland, and (3) Wales.

The information is not held in the format requested.

All tests have been assessed as performing to manufacturers’ specifications before being used. The current tests are very specific and the risk of false positives, where the test is reacting to other viruses, is extremely low in the order of less than one in 500. Like any diagnostic test however, there is always the small possibility of a false negative or a false positive result.