Travellers feel ripped off by the cost of testing – it’s another mess the government could have avoided

The testing regime for those travelling to green and amber list countries is the centrepiece of the government’s strategy that has allowed for restrictions to be eased around holidays – so the last thing it needs is the threat of another fiasco after the U-turns and confusion around the traffic-light system.

Numbers of passengers are increasing. Heathrow airport, for example, handled 1.5m passengers in July, up 74 per cent compared with the same month in 2020. However, the added capacity is seemingly placing a strain on the testing network, with reports of overflowing public drop boxes for PCR tests. There have also been complaints from MPs about the cost of testing – the government lists more than 400 approved PCR test providers, priced between £20 and around £300, with the average cost being about £75.

The health secretary, Sajid Javid, has written to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), asking it to investigate “excessive” costs and “exploitative practices” among PCR test firms – although the CMA has suggested that its recommendations will come “within the next month”.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has clearly decided that pushing the government on this will align with public opinion. He has said he is “worried about the length of time it takes for tests and the costs of tests”. He told ITV News: “A lot of people are returning feeling they’re not entering an orderly system and frankly I think they feel they’re being ripped off.”

Whether that will cut through to actual polling numbers is difficult to say, but given the mess of complexities and mixed messaging that has been the government’s travel policy so far this summer, it would be silly not for him to point out the latest issues.

The government certainly can ill-afford another long-running issue, played out over a number of days or weeks. Not because Boris Johnson and his cabinet haven’t managed to ride out the confusion over the “amber list”, “amber plus list” and the “amber watchlist” – but because those voters who are banking on a summer break may just remember if they don’t get one.

The health of the nation is the most important aspect in this Covid-19 pandemic, obviously, and as long as the government is always demonstrably working in that interest there can be few complaints. But having made the decision to allow people to be able to take holidays under the proviso of testing, they have to make sure that system works.

As with several other elements of the government response to the pandemic, it is not as if a steep rise in the number of travellers once restrictions were lifted somewhat could not have been foreseen. Certainly the travel industry has been banging that drum for months.

Keeping people safe is the priority – but the government needs to get a handle on the testing process and make sure people also aren’t left excessively out of pocket, or have their time wasted.