Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the pilot projects aimed at supporting people to self-isolate in areas with higher covid-19 infection rates, what steps the pilots will take to identify people who do not come forward to take a test for covid-19 because they lack the financial means to self-isolate; if he will make it his policy to include further financial support for people to self isolate; how long the pilots will take to be evaluated; and if he will make a statement.

The pilots have been co-designed with the local authorities involved and will focus on interventions designed to address barriers to uptake of testing and adherence to self-isolation. These include improving accessibility to and effectiveness of the Test and Trace Support Payment Scheme, including raising the income threshold for eligibility, with the aim of giving people on low incomes confidence that they will receive financial support quickly if they test positive for COVID-19.

The pilots work will inform future policy through robust evidence on specific interventions. The pilot programme is designed to find innovative approaches to encourage uptake in testing, evaluate these approaches and share pilot results widely and quickly with local decision-makers. The length of evaluation will vary from pilot to pilot.