The Department of Health and Social Care and UK Health Security Agency are addressing regulatory failures in the private COVID-19 testing market for international travel, which expanded from 11 to 400+ firms between December 2020 and September 2021 but lacks consumer protections. The market has suffered from unclear pricing, misleading advertisements, and delayed results, with UKAS providing accreditation through a three-stage process. Government intervention is needed to establish functional market regulation and consumer safeguards as testing requirements persist internationally.
The government's allocation of testing for coronavirus (COVID-19) in England.
The government's allocation of testing for coronavirus (COVID-19) in England.
How the government intends to scale up testing programmes to provide a test to anyone who needs one.