Decisions over whether to self-isolate or go into a workplace after a positive Covid-19 test will soon be down to individuals and their employees, a business minister has suggested.
The remarks from Paul Scully come as Boris Johnson prepares to scrap the legal requirement to self-isolate in an update to MPs on the end of remaining pandemic restrictions in England.
At a meeting of the cabinet on Monday morning, the prime minister is also expected to set out decisions on whether to wind down the provision of free tests and self-isolation payments.
Speaking on Sky News, Mr Scully insisted it was “important that we don’t work and live under government diktat for a moment longer than is necessary” after almost two years of restrictions.
Asked whether he would tell a member of his own team to stay at home after a positive test — once the rules in England lapse — he said: “Like any illness, any transmissible illness, you would say stay at home”.
He added that if an employee had flu, they would be expected to stay at home, “but it’ll be down to themselves or down to their employer”, in comments that are likely to cause alarm among unions.
Amid speculation the government will set out a date to phase out free testing, Mr Scully also insisted the government “can’t continue forevermore spending £2bn a month on tests”.
“If you think what that £2bn might go towards, there’s a lot of other backlogs in the NHS, other illnesses in the NHS, that that money could otherwise go for,” he insisted.
Speaking on the BBC’s Westminster Hour, however, the Conservative MP Tim Loughton raised concerns over the end of free Covid testing, saying he had “slight apprehensions”.
“I think we still do need to have testing available widely because I think that is the reassurance people can have that they’ve taken all possible precautions and they don’t want to infect other people,” he said.
Mr Scully, who said guidance would be published later today on the end of self-isolation rules, also suggested in a separate interview that businesses would be liable to pay for their own testing regime if they want to continue routinely checking staff for Covid.
The business minister told Times Radio “we don’t test for flu, we don’t test for other diseases, and if the variants continue to be as mild as Omicron then there’s a question mark as to whether people will go through that regular testing anyway”
“But if employers want to be paying (for) tests and continuing a testing regime within their workplace, then that will be for them to pay at that point,” he said.
