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The British “traffic light” system, introduced by the UK government to enable safe international travel during the coronavirus pandemic, has never been properly tested or implemented, despite taxpayers spending nearly £500 million. He said on Tuesday.
Ministers “did not know that the system worked or that the cost was worth the disruption,” the Public Accounts Committee said. The government has spent at least £486mn on the plan over five phases between 2021 and 2022, according to official estimates.
Although UK travel laws changed “at least 10 times” between February 2021 and January 2022, when the traffic light system was in place, the PAC said the government “did not clearly communicate the changes to drivers or the public”.
The program labels countries green, amber or red according to their Covid-19 rates, with rules for each category ranging from testing requirements to 10-day hotel stays.
The MPs said: “We are concerned that the government is not trying to measure the success of the health measures, especially as a study by the airport industry found that the health measures have only delayed the number of cases from new arrivals by seven days.
The largest expense to the taxpayer is the managed hotel quarantine service. Although it was initially intended to be self-funded, taxpayers spent £329mn on the service, or half of its total cost, despite only 2% of independent guests testing positive.
In November last year, 11 African countries were put on the red list, sparking outrage from some of their leaders and forcing travelers into managed hotel detention after the Omicron variant first appeared in South Africa. The hotel’s quarantine service has cost guests around £2,200 for a 10-day stay since August last year.
The committee criticized the Department of Health and Social Care’s handling of the controversial travel testing system. “Improperly preparing the market for travel tests has put the public at risk of fraud and poor quality of service,” the DHSC said.
The MPs took aim at how the travel test platform on the government’s website legitimized unaccredited service providers, “giving the impression that they are approved by the government when in fact they do not meet the required standards”.
Meg Hillier, Labor MP and chair of the committee, said: “We can be clear on one thing – the cost to the taxpayer of subsidizing expensive quarantine hotels and millions of taxpayers’ money wasted on measures with no clear plan or rationale. Evidence or certification that it is working to protect public health.
She added that the government was “not learning lessons” from the outbreak quickly enough and was “missing opportunities to respond quickly” to new strains of Covid, the monkeypox outbreak across Europe or future public health emergencies.
The government said it had “acted swiftly and decisively” to implement life-saving policies during the outbreak and was fully cooperating with the recently launched Covid-19 public inquiry.
“Our priority is public health, and there has been a huge effort by the government to put in place border measures to help protect the UK. . . We will buy the necessary time for our local response to new and different developments,” he added.
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