Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to introduce regular asymptomatic testing for covid-19 for hospice staff.

Hospices across the country have played a vital role in the COVID-19 response, helping to provide more capacity for the National Health Service and continuing to provide care to those who need it. Regular asymptomatic testing on a weekly basis for clinical hospice staff was introduced from 4 December. Hospices are now able to order polymerase chain reaction tests through our online portal and we would encourage all hospices to do so. This is in addition to the existing testing available to all symptomatic health and care staff as a priority, including hospice staff.