To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to expand laboratory capacity for covid-19 testing in (a) Leicestershire and (b) the rest of England.

We have rapidly built the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities in British history from scratch since the pandemic began. Our laboratories are processing more than 1 million tests a week and we recently announced the addition of new Lighthouse laboratories in Charnwood, Newcastle and Bracknell. The latest and fifth addition – the Newport lab – is already live and is taking samples and operates alongside labs at Milton Keynes, Alderley Park, Glasgow and Cambridge.