Employers with staff who are working on-site have only a short window remaining to take advantage of the Government’s offer of free rapid lateral flow coronavirus tests. Those organisations with 50 or more staff whose employees cannot work from home have until 11.59pm Wednesday, 31 March 2021, to register their interest on gov.uk.
Setting up a testing programme raises a host of considerations, most notably around data protection and collecting results, as shown in the Government’s summary of employers’ legal obligations in this area. Even with the assistance of third party testing providers, this testing programme is only likely to lend itself to certain sectors and, if contemplating such a programme, taking prompt advice is strongly recommended.
However, for those organisations which require in-person staff and have the organisational ability, this testing could form a worthwhile part of their health and safety planning and, hopefully, their roadmap towards a post-COVID working environment.