Written question WQ84129

UKHSA and HMPPS are responsible for the testing of prison staff in the UK and prisoner health is the responsibility of devolved governments. Welsh Government does not hold data on the testing of prison staff. UKHSA estimates approximately 40% of staff are conducting regular LFD testing. The UK Government therefore decided in late December 2021 to make testing for prison staff a mandatory requirement in prisons in England and Wales in order to improve testing levels.

Public Health Wales has recorded a total 7.2 million LFD results across health, social care, prisons, workplaces, community and general public testing. The testing cohort is 943,000 individuals with an average 7.7 tests per person. 63,000 of these people reported positive results since LFD testing began. The information is updated weekly on PHW’s website: Rapid COVID-19 virology - Public | Tableau Public

These data do not include breakdowns for prison staff and prisoners or for individual prisons. The Welsh Government’s testing strategy identifies a number of key groups to be tested using a LFT and we are currently working with Public Health Wales to make more detailed information available by these groups.

PCR testing statistics for prisons in Wales is recorded by Welsh Government on the Stats Wales website which is publically available. This data is not broken down by Prisons and can be found at Number of PCR antigen tests and results by critical worker or resident category (gov.wales)

It is not currently possible to distinguish between key workers (prison staff) and residents (prisoners) for samples processed in non-NHS Wales laboratories. This information has therefore been recorded together by Stats Wales.