Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the South African variant of covid-19 can be identified through processing available at the Milton Keynes Lighthouse Laboratory.

The tests processed at Milton Keynes Lighthouse Laboratory will detect the South African variant as a SARS-CoV-2 RNA Positive result. Once SARS-CoV-2 RNA is positive, these samples are sent away to the Sanger Institute for sequencing to identify whether they are the South African or any other variant.