Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Government did not strike the right balance between its reliance on the travel industry to...
Recommendation
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 imposed extra costs on carriers in a period where their revenue had fallen dramatically. Although government provided access to up to £8 billion of financial support during the pandemic, this was mostly general support from the furlough scheme. It did not provide any additional financial support to carriers to implement the travel controls it introduced. Despite government’s reliance on carriers, it gave them given short notice of changes to the rules and requirements to adapt their operations. Government sometimes did not provide carriers with sufficient notice ahead of public statements that the travel rules were changing because they were concerned about leaks, but details appeared in the media anyway. Recommendation: The Cabinet Office should set out, as part of its report capturing lessons learned, how it would support industry partners if health measures were reintroduced or required as part of other programmes in future. Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic 7
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
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 situation. Ministers were always clear that they would not hesitate to act quickly to protect public health but where the government could, operators were provided with as much certainty and clarity as possible, with 11 versions of updated guidance issued to transport operators between February 2021 and March 2022. 4.3 As part of contingency planning for future COVID-19 variants and broader pandemic preparedness, the government is considering all lessons learned, including how departments worked with industry partners. The Department for Transport has engaged with the transport industry to gather views on contingency planning and will continue to work closely with the transport industry over the autumn on this and longer-term resilience. The Home Office also continues to work with the transport industry to improve automation to support international travel in a future health event. Further lessons learned through this engagement will be captured, but some of the lessons learned on supporting industry partners with implementing border health measures include: • There should be regular engagement to communicate and provide as much certainty as possible on changes to border health measures. This engagement should provide an opportunity for industry members to seek clarity on any guidance and raise any operational impacts. • Operator and passenger guidance on gov.uk and the government toolkit to support industry communications to passengers should be regularly reviewed and updated. 4.4 As set out in the government’s recent response to the Transport Select Committee, on UK aviation: reform for take-off, there is a very high bar for implementing additional measures to respond to COVID-19 variants and the government’s default approach will be to use the least stringent measures, if appropriate, to minimise the impact on travel as far as possible.