Coronavirus - Lateral Flow Testing Privacy Notice

The council and Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group (HMR CCG) continue to work together with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to support coronavirus (COVID-19) testing.

As of 31 March 2022, most people can no longer access free testing for coronavirus (COVID-19). There are a number of settings or groups that may be required or recommended to continue testing. These groups can still get free COVID-19 rapid lateral flow tests from the NHS.

Lateral flow tests are available if you have a health condition which means you're eligible for COVID-19 treatments.

You may also be able to get free NHS tests if:

• You're going into hospital
• You work in healthcare or adult social care

Order coronavirus (COVID-19) rapid lateral flow tests

These tests are to be used for testing yourself. They do not have to be sent away to a laboratory and the results are available quickly. Testing is important to help us to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and is a tried and tested method for public health to control the spread of infectious diseases.

The national online service can be used to report the result to the NHS after using a rapid lateral flow test kit to check if you’re infectious with coronavirus (COVID-19).

Please note this service cannot be used to report results from a test kit that has been paid for.

In some instances, we have staff that can help with the testing process. They can help a person take a test and can help to report the result using the barcode on the test.

We do not have any access to the information you input into the NHS registration portal. The DHSC is responsible for this information. To find out how DHSC uses your personal data when you register for a coronavirus test, read the DHSC coronavirus privacy notice.

If you still want to get tested and you're not eligible for a free NHS test, you must pay for a COVID-19 test yourself.

You can buy rapid lateral flow tests from some pharmacies and retailers, in person or online.

We might need to collect personal information to make sure that we can support with the testing process. Our testing staff will not have access to your personal information unless you need help to register.  The personal information we could ask you for to help you complete your registration could include:

• Name and date of birth
• Gender
• Address and postcode
• Telephone numbers or email address
• Data revealing racial or ethnic origin
• Health information, for example if you have COVID-19 symptoms
• Recent travel to work or place of education
• NHS number (if you know it)

When we collect personal information it will be about:

• Individuals requesting a test

We might use your personal information to:

• Provide support and guidance to register for a test
• Manage risks to public health and public protection

We're required by law to improve and protect health and wellbeing. This is detailed in legislation and guidance including:

• Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984
• Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002
• The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No 2) (England) Regulations 2020
• Coronavirus Act 2020

We're allowed to process personal and sensitive data for the following reasons under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Articles and the Data Protection Act:

• For public tasks or statutory functions
• Where there is substantial public interest
• For the management of health and social care systems or services
• For reasons of public interest in the area of public health

As part of the process we will send your test results back to the national NHS Test and Trace system using the barcode.

• Health and healthcare organisations, for example, NHS Test and Trace.

• Coronavirus

Contact the team