Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of reintroducing free covid-19 lateral flow tests for asymptomatic clinically vulnerable people.
The success of the COVID-19 vaccination and booster programme and the availability of antiviral treatments has reduced the risk of severe illness or hospitalisation for the majority of the population. For those unable to mount a full immune response, testing pathways to evidence based effective COVID-19 treatments will be available. We will continue to monitor prevalence and other factors, keeping testing policies under review.