Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic
Public Accounts Committee
HC 29
Published 26 July 2022
Recommendations
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 …
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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.
HM Treasury
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19
Rejected
The NAO found that the price of PCR tests for prices ranged from £15 to...
Recommendation
The NAO found that the price of PCR tests for prices ranged from £15 to £525. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) reviewed the PCR testing market in August 2021 and found there was a ‘race to the bottom’ where …
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Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the recommendation, stating that it *did* take on board many of the CMA’s recommendations, and describes the actions taken in response to the CMA report.
HM Treasury
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Conclusions (2)
16
Conclusion
Rejected
The NAO reported that government had no formal, agreed articulation of how competing objectives for implementation of the system as a whole should be balanced and prioritised. We asked how government ensured that the seven separate programmes worked together to protect health without suppressing economic activity. The Cabinet Office stated …
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the committee's recommendation regarding the balancing and prioritisation of competing objectives, stating that they did take on board many of the CMA's recommendations and detailing actions taken.
18
Conclusion
Rejected
DHSC told us that it had tried to ensure that the market could provide valid and accurate tests, and that without its approach it would not have been able to develop the scale of testing market that it needed. We asked whether DHSC had reflected on the value of the …
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the Committee's recommendation because it did take on board many of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) recommendations; lists multiple specific actions it took to address the issues raised, and states that if health measures were re-introduced, the UKHSA would continue to learn the lessons from previous iterations of travel testing.