Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has set a date by which he plans to turn all covid-19 tests around within 12 hours.

We have made extraordinary improvements that means the vast majority of in-person tests at our testing sites continue to be returned the next day. For in-person tests (regional testing sites and mobile testing units), 87.7% of all tests were received within 24 hours (and 96.4% the day after the test was taken). The current average COVID-19 testing turnaround time in the National Health Service pathology laboratories is less than 12 hours, enabling healthcare professionals to deliver results as quickly as possible to patients and provide appropriate care. Over 97% of NHS labs have an average test turnaround time of under 24 hours. The turnaround times for both Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 are published weekly on GOV.UK as part of the Weekly NHS Test and Trace Bulletin.