Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 13 April (HL7017), what surveillance the UK Health Security Agency is currently undertaking in line with their Living with COVID-19 plan published in February 2022, given that the ONS has no plans to test and report on respiratory infections.

The Government is committed to maintaining robust COVID-19 surveillance activities across primary and secondary care, as well as in high-risk settings. This will be underpinned by the continuation of genomic sequencing to detect and assess severity and vaccine effectiveness against new variants.

The approach to COVID-19 surveillance is being actively reviewed to ensure it is proportionate, cost effective and considered alongside how the Government monitors a range of other respiratory diseases. The UK Health Security Agency will continue to publish regular reports on COVID-19 which will contribute to our situational awareness; these include our weekly surveillance reports, which provide data on infection rates and hospitalisation numbers.