Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress has been made in the Cambridge University and AstraZ lighthouse Laboratory PCR testing.

The Cambridge University and AstraZeneca Lighthouse Laboratory’s most recent innovation of heat inactivation of samples and the direct to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process, in conjunction with GSK, accelerates PCR testing and thereby increases the laboratory’s potential capacity whilst reducing processing times. They have also developed novel solutions to some of the logistical challenges faced by the network including the development of a system that allows samples to be delivered in racks direct to the laboratory and data monitoring software to reduce the risks to data uploads.