Mr. Simon Osman:

One example is the Bristol Airport project where we worked with a lab. We also worked on the flow of the individual turning up to the flight and getting on it. There was a lateral flow test taken on the morning of the journey to make that happen. Lateral flow testing was part of the process. At the point of go-live for this project on the route to Amsterdam, due to another lockdown, it was cancelled from moving into a full productive environment. The process had been approved at that point. We will be talking with them again in the next few days in terms of where we are with the status of that. There was a moment where there was an agreement that the lateral flow test option was a good one.

The challenge we have with airline travel is the moving target around the guidelines and each country's different regulations. The UK is running a traffic light system, which does not necessarily twin with the system at the other end. It is that common set of guidelines that are now working their way through measures like the good health pass initiative. The ability to interoperate with other platforms will become important.

In the UK, lateral flow has got wide adoption in a number of sectors. We are seeing it in schools. Individuals are now testing twice, maybe three times, a week depending on what setting they are going into. We are seeing it used across the whole sector. We have been working with UEFA and other large organisations around lateral flow testing as part of the solution. As we see the vaccination percentage get to a good number, we will see lateral flow tests filling the space and becoming the day-to-day mitigation and management solution of transmissibility.

We have seen lateral flow testing in most of our proof of concepts that we have been running. It is part of the process. It is important to recognise it is different kind of solution or different products for different use cases. To force things against each other into the same place is where there are clashes. There is a use case for both products.

In terms of the public health solution, we believe the correct model is to look at lateral flow testing on a public health level. In terms of science and accuracy, then one can move to PCR, for example, on a positive test. I am a technologist - I want to make that clear - but that is my experience of what we are seeing in terms of data, the best way to mitigate risk and get things moving again in a safe and secure way.