Helen Whately corrected a written answer on Coronavirus: Screening

23 November 2020 · Commons written answer · Department of Health and Social Care

Dr Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party, Central Ayrshire) asked written question 62458 on 22 June 2020. Helen Whately answered on 18 November 2020 for the Department of Health and Social Care, and Helen Whately corrected the answer on 23 November 2020. The corrected text adds the figures 2,377, 2,762, 2,966, 35,946, 4,895, 5,907, which the original did not give. Altogether 102 words differ between the two versions.

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many covid-19 tests performed at home were sent to testing centres on each day from 27 April 2020 to 5 May 2020.

Original and corrected answer

Struck through: original only. Bold: correction only.

Original	Corrected
Using data from Royal Mail the number of home tests conducted in this time frame are shown in the following table. It should be noted that the Royal Mail’s data captures when the kit is delivered at their delivery office near the laboratory. For example, if the kit is ‘scanned as delivered’ on 4 May, it will then make it to the laboratory the following morning, 5 May, at the agreed ‘drop-off’ time. \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \|	Using data from Royal Mail the number of home tests conducted in this time frame are shown in the following table. It should be noted that the Royal Mail’s data captures when the kit is delivered at their delivery office near the laboratory. For example, if the kit is ‘scanned as delivered’ on 4 May, it will then make it to the laboratory the following morning, 5 May, at the agreed ‘drop-off’ time. Tests returned are counted and reported only once they have been processed by the laboratory and will appear in the data for pillar 2. Data on the number of tests processed by pillar is available at the following link: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/testing Information on the methodology of how testing data is compiled is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-test-and-trace-statistics-england-methodology/nhs-test-and-trace-statistics-england-methodology Date \| Kits scanned as delivered 26 April 2020 \| 954 27 April 2020 \| 2,069 28 April 2020 \| 2,762 29 April 2020 \| 2,377 30 April 2020 \| 2,966 1 May 2020 \| 4,895 2 May 2020 \| 5,907 3 May 2020 \| 6,906 4 May 2020 \| 7,110 Total \| 35,946

Original

Corrected

Using data from Royal Mail the number of home tests conducted in this time frame are shown in the following table. It should be noted that the Royal Mail’s data captures when the kit is delivered at their delivery office near the laboratory. For example, if the kit is ‘scanned as delivered’ on 4 May, it will then make it to the laboratory the following morning, 5 May, at the agreed ‘drop-off’ time.
Tests returned are counted and reported only once they have been processed by the laboratory and will appear in the data for pillar 2.
Data on the number of tests processed by pillar is available at the following link:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/testing
Information on the methodology of how testing data is compiled is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-test-and-trace-statistics-england-methodology/nhs-test-and-trace-statistics-england-methodology
Date
| Kits scanned as delivered
26 April 2020
| 954
27 April 2020
| 2,069
28 April 2020
| 2,762
29 April 2020
| 2,377
30 April 2020
| 2,966
1 May 2020
| 4,895
2 May 2020
| 5,907
3 May 2020
| 6,906
4 May 2020
| 7,110
Total
| 35,946

The question and answer on the Parliament website.

Receipt

Read from	https://questions-statements-api.parliament.uk/api/writtenquestions/questions/1216345?expandMember=true
Date read	15 October 2026
SHA-256	`b279ecd861761b8955e6dacecbceffb7738b4501d6fa8c59c9fa15a3bfb7161b`