Recommendations & Conclusions
10 items
4
Recommendation
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-borde…
Government did not strike the right balance between its reliance on the travel industry to implement travel controls and the support it provided. Carriers were legally responsible for checking that everyone travelling to the UK had submitted a Passenger Locator Form recording their contact information and recent travel history. This …
Government response. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The government recognises the important role that transport operators played in enabling the UK’s COVID-19 border response and the speed they had to adapt their operations to the changing …
HM Treasury
5
Recommendation
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-borde…
Not Addressed
The Department for Health & Social Care’s failure to properly set up the market for travel tests put the public at risk of fraud and poor quality of service. DHSC required companies looking to conduct tests to be accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service. The first stage of this …
Government response. The government did not address the recommendation regarding the CMA recommendations on the testing market.
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-borde…
The NAO found that government had limited data on the impact of the exemptions and as a result it did not know how frequently exemptions were used, how many people with exemptions tested positive, or whether the number of exemptions was proportionate to the risk presented. We asked whether government …
HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-borde…
We asked DfT why government granted exemptions for one-off events such as Euro 2020, London Fashion Week and the COP 26 summit. It said that government had put in place bespoke measures to reduce the risk of transmission at these events. For example, it explained that COP 26 attendees had …
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-borde…
The largest part of government’s spending on COVID-19 border measures was on the MQS, which cost the taxpayer £329 million. This is after the recovery of £428 million from guests paying for their accommodation and tests. In total, the service cost £757 million.34 DHSC explained that it originally intended to …
HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-borde…
We asked about the experience of guests in quarantine hotels and what had been done to safeguard people staying in the MQS. DHSC told us that it had put a great deal of effort into making sure that hotels were a safe environment for all those staying in them. It …
HM Treasury
26
Conclusion
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-borde…
In addition to not tracking costs, government did not formally set out what it regarded as successful implementation of the cross-border travel measures, nor its measurement of success.45 We therefore asked the Cabinet Office how it knew whether measures were effective and how it would determine whether they had been …
Government response. 1.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 29 Recommendation implemented 1.2 Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, departments considered the efficacy of policies implemented, and those lessons learned continue to inform contingency planning and are considered across government, including looking ahead …
HM Treasury
27
Conclusion
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-borde…
The airport industry commissioned its own research into the costs and benefits of travel restrictions which found that, had there been no travel restrictions in place during November and December 2021, the peak in omicron cases would have occurred only seven days earlier and would have been 8 per cent …
HM Treasury
28
Conclusion
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-borde…
The NAO reported that the circumstances in which government had to implement the traffic light system had often been a crisis response requiring government to move at pace.49 The Cabinet Office explained that the system was a response to the then concern about vaccine-evading variants of COVID-19. We observed that …
HM Treasury
30
Conclusion
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-borde…
The Cabinet Office explained that decisions about the rules were taken by the COVID-O (Operations) ministerial committee who met frequently, with support from committees and working groups of officials.56 The NAO found that supporting groups had 49 C&AG’s Report, para 1.5 50 Qq 61, 70–71 51 Qq 101–103; C&AG’s report, …
HM Treasury