London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2025

Goldman Sachs to offer free Covid-19 tests for London staff

Goldman Sachs to offer free Covid-19 tests for London staff

Goldman Sachs is preparing to offer free Covid-19 tests for its UK staff within weeks, as part of its global efforts to get bankers back to the office.

The Wall Street lender revealed a testing programme for workers in the US on Friday, and indicated in a staff memo that similar programmes may be considered for its other large offices “in the future”.

The Guardian now understands that preparations are under way to offer free mass testing for members of its 6,000-strong London workforce who choose to return to the office.

The move is likely to mean free off-site Covid-19 tests are offered to workers who have either returned or are planning to return to Goldman’s London offices at Plumtree Court in the City. These will include saliva-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which confirm whether someone currently has Covid-19, and antibody tests, to determine if a worker previously carried the virus.

If the UK office were to follow the US programme, staff who plan to continue working from home but still want to take a private test may be reimbursed through Goldman’s health insurance programme but would have to pay upfront. Most private tests in the UK cost between £100 and £200.

Currently about 25% or 1,500 Goldman bankers are coming into its London office on any given day. A Goldman spokesperson said the bank was not setting any targets for office workers in the UK to return. The UK government has encouraged people to continue working from home where possible amid another rise in Covid-19 cases.


UK data as published 12 October, 2020, national data as published 12 October, 2020. Note: This is the latest available from PHE. UK total is not always the sum of totals for individual countries. Low daily deaths at weekends is often a result of delayed reporting. Weekly change shows new daily cases compared to 7 days ago.


Goldman bankers at the London office are already subject to temperature checks on arrival and are asked to sign in to a bespoke app to answer questions about recent travel or potential symptoms on a daily basis. However, the bank is not enforcing use of the UK government’s contact-tracing app.

In the memo announcing the US testing programme last week, Goldman said: “Testing is one part of a comprehensive prevention strategy that includes wearing masks, following general hygiene and handwashing best practices, and practising social distancing.”

Goldman’s London bankers are already eligible for office perks including free takeaway breakfast and lunch, having previously had to pay for food. Staff who were previously entitled to 20 days of free childcare at an onsite creche have been able to claim an extra 10 days as they try to juggle work and family life.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
×