Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Rejected
To preserve NHS testing capacity for domestic health monitoring, DHSC created a private sector market...
Recommendation
To preserve NHS testing capacity for domestic health monitoring, DHSC created a private sector market for PCR tests for people travelling. The number of firms offering PCR tests increased from 11 in December 2020 to at least 400 by September 2021. United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has a three stage process for accrediting firms 24 Committee of Public Accounts, Government preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons for government on risk, Forty-Sixth Report of Session 2021–22, HC 952, 23 March 2022; HM Government, The Orange Book: Management of Risk – Principles and Concepts, February 2020 25 Q 66 26 C&AG’s Report, para 10 27 Qq 67–68 28 Qq 68, 78; C&AG’s Report para 11 Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic 15 conducting tests.29 The first stage is a self-declaration that the company can provide tests to minimum standards set by DHSC. Despite this, DHSC listed companies as testing providers on gov.uk after passing only stage one. The NAO reported that 95% of companies failed the second stage of accreditation at their first attempt. The second stage required providers to submit evidence to the accreditor.30
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation, stating that it did take on board many of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) recommendations.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
5: PAC conclusion: 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. 5: PAC recommendation: DHSC should set out, as part of its Treasury Minute response, why it did not take on board the CMA’s recommendations on the testing market, and which recommendations it would implement if health measures were re- introduced. 5.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 5.2 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation as it did take on board many of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) recommendations. 5.3 When travel testing launched in Spring 2021 there was insufficient capacity in the NHS to provide testing. The government needed to grow a private market to meet this challenge, which involved striking the right balance between development and regulation of a market. 5.4 After the CMA published its report UKHSA held regular engagement with the CMA and took action to improve the service providers were giving. 5.5 UKHSA removed over 340 providers from the travel testing list (Recommendation B), carried out c500 checks into the accuracy of pricing per week (Recommendation E), and 32 helped ensure the test price dropped by c60% between August 2021 and February 2022 by regularly reducing the price of the government-provided tests (Recommendations D and E). 5.6 Specific actions taken: • All new providers had their prices audited before being added to the approved list. • Daily spot checks were carried out on all prices under £15 for accuracy and availability, and a sample of those over £15. • All price change requests were audited before going live on gov.uk. • Instigated a monitoring system of provider performance to ensure high quality service and removed a significant number of providers who did not meet the minimum requirements (Recommendation A). • Enhanced the test provider listing on gov.uk by adding new filters to allow customers to make more accurate searches. (Recommendation F). • Introduced world leading test validation regulations and a three-stage accreditation process to ensure that only high quality, accurate tests could be sold (Recommendation C) 5.7 If health measures were re-introduced, the UKHSA would continue to learn the lessons from previous iterations of travel testing, including the CMA recommendations. The exact measures to implement would depend on the context and circumstances in which the UKHSA were operating.