Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the laboratory processing times for covid-19 tests in the South East.

Turnaround times have improved since the temporary dip over the holiday period due to focusing resource on increased demand. NHS Test and Trace are increasing staffing levels, the use of robotics and adding more capacity – meaning they can not only provide more tests, but also improve turnaround times. Reducing turnaround times is our absolute priority to make sure we are reaching people as soon as possible. We always need to balance ensuring as many people as possible can get a test alongside ensuring test results are delivered as quickly as possible and as capacity continues to grow at pace, we expect to see improvements.

We continue to use new technology to increase capacity and automate parts of the process, install new machines, hire more permanent staff, open new laboratories and invest further in new technology to process results faster. In December, Health Services Laboratories in partnership with University College London, Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London partner labs joined the nationwide effort to increase testing capacity. The laboratories form part of the Department’s partnership agreement with a London Testing Alliance of four university laboratories, which will increase testing capacity by tens of thousands over the winter months. King’s College London will also join soon. We have built our capacity from 2000 tests a day in March to our current capacity of more than half a million. And we will add an additional new large laboratory in 2021, which will add another 300,000 tests to our daily capacity.

We publish data on individual capacity across all pillars throughout England each week alongside at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/nhs-test-and-trace-statistics-england-weekly-reports