Source · Select Committees · Transport Committee
Recommendation 8
8
Paragraph: 43
Under-regulation has resulted in a dysfunctional travel testing market.
Conclusion
Under-regulation has resulted in a dysfunctional travel testing market. The travel testing market was established with no clear protections or means of recourse for consumers. To date, the onus has been on consumers to perform market research, which has required them to navigate often misleading claims by companies. Unclear pricing, misleading advertisements and delays in receiving tests and test results still persist more than a year after the Government first introduced travel testing requirements. The Government has been far too slow to address those issues.
Paragraph Reference:
43
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government partially agrees with these recommendations. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and UKHSA have worked closely with the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) since they published their report in September 2021. Actions have been taken to improve both the quality and price of the market. This includes removing providers where there were significant concerns from the GOV.UK list. An increasing number of countries are easing testing requirements (either for all or for vaccinated passengers only in the case of Australia, Canada, India and Singapore). However, we recognise some other countries still require tests. Pre-departure tests (PDT) for travel from the UK currently are readily available. Many of the larger testing providers offer supervised antigen PDTs from £23–35 and PCR PDTs from £43–59. UKHSA monitors issues raised by the public: any provider may be removed from the GOV.UK registry of private test providers on a precautionary basis if they are believed to be putting public safety at risk or not to be meeting the government’s minimum standards. In certain circumstances UKHSA will support key regulatory bodies, such as Trading Standards, to undertake further investigation of a provider and support any legal actions or interventions. DHSC and the UKHSA will continue to monitor the private COVID-19 testing market and to engage with the CMA. At this stage, the Government does not agree with the recommendation that the CMA needs to review the operation of the market for antigen travel tests. Lessons were learned and implemented when establishing the antigen travel test market in October 2021, with higher barriers to entry. UKHSA is also conducting a ‘lessons learned’ exercise on the private testing market and what could be done to improve overall performance. Lessons learned will be incorporated into contingency planning.