Harriett Baldwin, MP for West Worcestershire, commented: “The Government has taken enormous steps to introduce a Covid-19 testing system from scratch and the local testing centres in Worcestershire have plenty of capacity to administer tests for anyone who needs one.

“The Department for Health and Social Care has introduced targeted testing of staff without symptoms where appropriate. In line with advice from the Chief Medical Officer, staff working with patients on wards will benefit from regular testing far more than NHS staff working in offices or administrative roles where they do not come into regular contact with patients.

“Testing will play an important role as we seek to identify and isolate outbreaks of the virus and I am confident the Government has the right plan in place to help us to combat the spread of Covid-19 while now relaxing the lockdown, helping more businesses to re-open and helping our economy to recover.

“This matter was debated in the House of Commons in time allotted to the opposition parties and it would be wrong to say MPs voted against testing of NHS staff because that clearly is not the case.”

The Hansard report of the whole debate can be read here.