Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has (a) plans and (b) a timeframe for ceasing the allocation of funding for asymptomatic testing.

As set out in the Government’s COVID-19 Response: Autumn and Winter Plan, asymptomatic testing continues to be an important tool to help reduce the spread of the virus, while supporting people to manage their own risk and the risks of others.

The Government will continue to provide the public with access to free lateral flow tests. People may wish to use regular rapid testing to help manage periods of risk such as after close contact with others in a higher risk environment, or before spending prolonged time with a more vulnerable person. At a later stage, as the Government’s response to the virus changes, universal free provision of lateral flow tests will end in due course. The Government will engage widely on the form of this model as it is developed, recognising that rapid testing could continue to have an important, ongoing role to play in future.