The Department recognises the importance of timely breast screening, to support this we has invested £10 million for breast screening units to deliver 28 new breast screening units and nearly 60 life-saving upgrades to services, so more women can be checked for signs of cancer, speeding up diagnosis and treatment. We are restoring the NHS Breast Screening programme to pre-pandemic levels continues. The majority of services removed their backlogs of invitations by the end of December 2022, with the remaining services being monitored and supported nationally and regionally. In addition, steps are being taken to remove barriers to attending breast cancer screening such as promoting the use of text message alerts to remind women of upcoming appointments and the roll out local and national media campaigns.

We will continue to make testing available for a small number of at-risk groups. Further details on eligible groups will be made available shortly.

From 1 April 2022, free access to lateral flow device tests in England will end, from both GOV.UK and pharmacies. From April, we expect that a private market will develop, allowing people who wish to continue testing to do so.

The data is not held in the format requested. Currently the only childcare setting in which polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing is routinely carried out is children’s secure homes. To minimise waiting times for all PCR testing, including in children’s homes, we have procured additional laboratory capacity and adopted a regional processing model to reduce travel times and increase efficiency.

No specific assessment has been made. Children and young people aged under 18 years and six months old who usually attend an education or childcare setting and who have been identified as a close contact can continue to attend as normal.

Working parents or guardians of a child or young person who has been told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace may be eligible for support via the Test and Trace Support Payment scheme if they live in England and meet specific eligibility criteria. The payment covers the full 10-day self-isolation period. If an individual has to look after someone who is required to self-isolate, they may also qualify for other welfare and COVID-19 support, such as Universal Credit and/or the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.

No assessment has been made regarding the specific impacts in question. However, assessments of the broader impact of the self-isolation requirements have been made for all age groups, including young adults. We recognise that young adults’ educational, social, and by extension health outcomes are highly impacted by self-isolation.

We are currently reviewing the potential merits of extending workplace daily contact testing to additional sites outside of the critical sectors already identified by the Government. Our initial focus is on completing the extension of the workplace daily contact testing scheme to 2,000 sites, as announced on 26 July. As of 16 August, contacts who are fully vaccinated do not have to self-isolate, but daily contact testing will continue in approved sites for contacts who are not yet fully vaccinated.

The roll-out of the Workplace Daily Contact Testing scheme has been focusing initially on sectors that provide essential services. Workplaces must be approved to take part in this scheme to ensure that they are able to provide on-site testing services safely, effectively and meet reporting requirements. The government rightly prioritised sectors and workplaces where disruption to services as a result of self-isolation would cause serious risk to public welfare.

From 16 August, contacts who are fully vaccinated are no longer required to self-isolate. This means that for fully vaccinated contacts, daily contact testing is no longer necessary as an alternative to self-isolation – instead they are advised to take a PCR test. Given the success of the vaccine roll-out, we expect this to support in easing pressures facing businesses from absence due to self-isolation.

These changes seek to reduce the impact on businesses from self-isolation in a targeted way, while ensuring self-isolation remains an effective tool against the spread of Covid-19.

As set out in the Covid-19 Impact Assessment last November, we cannot forecast with confidence the precise impact of specific changes to restrictions as this will depend on a broad range of factors which are, in many cases, difficult to estimate.

Daily contact testing, used as an alternative to self- isolation if a positive case is detected, continues to have the potential to be a valuable tool to identify positive contacts and break chains of transmission, while keeping more students and staff at school and college, which is the best place for their development and wellbeing.

A trial is being coordinated by the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Education, and the Office of National Statistics. It is being overseen by an independent Data Monitoring Committee and evaluated by researchers at the University of Oxford. The trial was also given ethical approval by the Public Health England Research Ethics and Governance Group.

The findings of the independent clinical trial are due to report in the summer and, if beneficial, a roll out could commence in secondary schools and colleges during the autumn term.

With respect to daily contact testing for the adult population, on the 29 April 2021, a randomised controlled study started in England to evaluate the home use of seven daily lateral flow tests plus two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, with the option for study participants to be released from self isolation for up to 24 hours following a negative result. A business as usual comparison group will be offered a single PCR test and asked to self-isolate for the 10 day period as usual.

This information is not currently available in the format requested.

Holidaymakers are able to use a lateral flow test for pre-departure testing before travel to England as long as it meets the minimum performance standards. Testing post-arrival remains an important tool in our wider measures to manage the risk of imported cases of Covid-19, as well as allowing us to identify variants of concern. We are exploring options to reduce the cost of testing, including cheaper tests being used when holidaymakers return home and whether the Government would be able to provide pre-departure tests.

On 9 April the Global Travel Taskforce published its report setting out a framework for the safe return of international travel from 17 May at the earliest, including the introduction of a ‘traffic light’ system for England, with different requirements for travellers based on whether a country is categorised as red, amber or green. The system will be flexible and able to respond to changes in the level of risk. Measures will be formally reviewed on or before 28 June, 31 July and 1 October.

The government recognises that the cost of tests for international travel can be high and is currently reviewing all options available to reduce the cost of Covid-19 tests. This includes working with the travel industry and private testing providers to further reduce the cost of travel while continuing to protect public health and monitor variants of concern.

Testing post-arrival remains an important tool in our wider measures to manage the risk of imported cases of Covid-19, as well as allowing us to identify variants of concern, however the Government is clear that we want the tests to be as cheap and convenient as possible.

The Budget announced a three-month extension to the business rates holiday for eligible businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors that was provided at Budget 2020. This means over 350,000 properties will pay no business rates for three months.

From 1 July 2021, 66% relief will be available subject to a cash cap that depends on whether businesses have been required to close or were able to open. This additional relief takes the total value of support in 2021-22 to £6 billion and means that the vast majority of businesses will receive an average 75% relief across the year.

Local authorities are responsible for awarding this discount, having regard to the guidance provided by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The managed quarantine and testing measures have been introduced in Regulations that have a ‘sunset’ date of 8 June 2021.

Under the current national restrictions, it is illegal to go on holiday. For those facing significant financial hardship as a result of testing charges, there is support available detailed on GOV.UK. This is available for individuals who already receive income-related benefits and they will be required to pay back their debt to the Government in 12 monthly instalments. All of these measures will be kept under constant review including the impact on families and those with protected characteristics.

NHS Test and Trace allow sufficient time to identify samples which exceed the median turnaround time and aim to automatically resolve before a complaint is received.

Any referrals are passed on to a dedicated team which specialises in tracking down missing results.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) consists of independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccines the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level.  For the first phase, the JCVI has advised that the vaccine be given to care home residents and staff, people aged over 80 years old and frontline health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors.

If testing centre staff are captured in phase one due to their age or clinical risk factors, then they will be prioritised accordingly. Prioritisation decisions for the next phase of delivery are subject to the surveillance and monitoring of data and information from phase one, as well as further input from independent scientific experts, such as the JCVI. Phase two may include targeted vaccination of those at high risk of exposure and/or those delivering key public services.

We increased our testing capacity to 500,000 tests a day by the end of October, expanding our network of testing sites. For the residents of York, there is a local testing centre at Wentworth Way Car Park at the University of York and a regional testing centre at Poppleton Bar Park and Ride.

Our laboratories are already processing more than a million tests a week and we recently announced new facilities and technology to process results more quickly. Due to unprecedented demand, we continue to target testing capacity at the areas that need it most, including those where there is an outbreak and prioritising at-risk groups.