Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department takes to ensure that when people choose to opt-out of the REACT covid-19 testing research study that their wishes are recorded and that they cease to be contacted; and if he will make statement.

The REACT study is being conducted by Imperial College London and Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Department. Participation in the REACT study is voluntary and participants can withdraw from the study at any time. This is managed by Ipsos MORI via a dedicated helpline and inbox that handle all queries including opt out. This ensures that participants who opt out will no longer be contacted by the study. If Ipsos MORI receive a request to cease future contact indefinitely, participants’ details are also added to their corporate ‘do not contact’ database, against which all future survey samples are screened.