Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has taken of the potential economic effect of covid-19 daily contact testing, as an alternative to self-isolation, not being available outside of the critical sectors identified by Government.

The roll-out of the Workplace Daily Contact Testing scheme has been focusing initially on sectors that provide essential services. Workplaces must be approved to take part in this scheme to ensure that they are able to provide on-site testing services safely, effectively and meet reporting requirements. The government rightly prioritised sectors and workplaces where disruption to services as a result of self-isolation would cause serious risk to public welfare.

From 16 August, contacts who are fully vaccinated are no longer required to self-isolate. This means that for fully vaccinated contacts, daily contact testing is no longer necessary as an alternative to self-isolation – instead they are advised to take a PCR test. Given the success of the vaccine roll-out, we expect this to support in easing pressures facing businesses from absence due to self-isolation.

These changes seek to reduce the impact on businesses from self-isolation in a targeted way, while ensuring self-isolation remains an effective tool against the spread of Covid-19.

As set out in the Covid-19 Impact Assessment last November, we cannot forecast with confidence the precise impact of specific changes to restrictions as this will depend on a broad range of factors which are, in many cases, difficult to estimate.