Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide schools in England with access to COVID-19 tests.

We are committed to supporting schools to stay open and as part of this, we are continuing to improve the testing system to ensure teaching staff can get priority access when they have symptoms. It is important that teachers who experience potential COVID-19 symptoms quickly get clarity on whether they have the virus so those without it can safely return to their classes.

All schools in England have also been provided with a small number of home testing kits to be offered in the exceptional circumstance that a school believes a pupil or importantly, a staff member who is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, will not be able to access a test by another route. Schools are now able to re-order a small number of kits, proportionate to their size, should they be running low or have run out of kits. They are able to place these orders every 21 days.