Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 8 February (HL12760), why NHS Test and Trace tests do “not meet the minimum standards required to legally release a traveller from self-isolation upon providing a negative result”; and on what basis they are using lateral flow tests as part of the Test to Release International Travel scheme.

NHS Test and Trace tests are not being used for the Test to Release scheme as this is an optional scheme for international arrivals from non ‘red list’ countries to allow them to shorten their isolation period. NHS Test and Trace testing is for people who have symptoms of COVID-19 or who are clinically advised to take a COVID-19 test. Testing for Test to Release must be a polymerase chain reaction test purchased from a private testing provider.