Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS hospitals will be permitted to retain unused covid-19 testing kits after the end of the free provision of those kits to the public.

National Health Service hospitals are permitted to retain unused COVID-19 testing kits following the end of free access to universal testing for the general public. It is at the discretion of hospitals on how remaining stock is distributed, which may include routine NHS staff testing or pre-admission testing. Free symptomatic and asymptomatic testing is available in the health and social care sector, based on clinical risk factors.