Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to assess the (a) suitability and (b) accuracy of tests used for the mass covid-19 testing pilot in Liverpool.

The antigen lateral flow test used for COVID-19 testing in Liverpool is highly specific, which means that only a small proportion of people who do not have COVID-19 will receive a false positive result. Ongoing quality assurance work has shown the tests to be as effective in identifying asymptomatic positive cases as symptomatic positive cases. If a person tests positive on a lateral flow test, it is likely that they are infectious at that moment. This means that by using the lateral flow test we can identify people with a high viral load who are the most likely to spread the virus further.