Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of mass covid-19 testing in Liverpool; and if he will publish the data that supports that assessment.

The Government published the ‘Liverpool COVID-19 community testing pilot: interim evaluation report summary’ which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/liverpool-covid-19-community-testing-pilot-interim-evaluation-report-summary/liverpool-covid-19-community-testing-pilot-interim-evaluation-report-summary

The report evaluates the data on the biological, behavioural and systems aspects of the pilot and its early public health impacts. A final assessment and a more detailed report on the effectiveness of mass testing and the data to support will follow later in 2021.