PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Travel: Coronavirus (18 August 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of making covid-19 testing kits for international travel free of charge for fully vaccinated people returning from countries subject to covid-19 green list travel rules.

Asked by:
Marsha De Cordova (Labour)

Free National Health Service tests cannot be used for travel in order to preserve existing testing capacity to protect public health, and the Department has no plans to provide free tests for fully vaccinated people from countries on the green list for travel. We are committed to working with the travel industry and private providers to reduce the cost of travel testing. We have invited the Competition and Markets Authority to conduct a review into pricing and standards in the market for international travel tests. We have also announced that the cost of NHS Test and Trace tests for international arrivals has been reduced from £88 to £68 for green or fully vaccinated amber arrivals.

Answered by:
Jo Churchill (Conservative)
6 September 2021