Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many covid-19 PCR laboratories have had to (a) redirect or (b) reject deliveries of PCR tests for analysis since 1 December 2021.

This information is not held centrally. However, laboratories do not reject deliveries of polymerase chain reaction test samples. Where an unexpected delivery arrives, the protocol states that laboratories should accept it and then arrange for the delivery to be re-directed.

The re-directions process is managed on a daily basis and is flexible to respond to changes in demand and any operational issues within the laboratories. This ensures that demand is spread evenly across the network, whilst maintaining turnaround times.