Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the annual cost to the NHS of providing its hospital staff with twice weekly covid-19 tests.

Testing for National Health Service staff in England is delivered and funded by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The UKHSA estimates that the annual cost of twice weekly lateral flow device testing for hospital staff is approximately £320 million. This is a combination of all testing costs, including procuring test kits, distribution and resourcing.