Covid-19 Update

Lord Haselhurst Excerpts

Thursday 13th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

The noble Lord is absolutely right. We recognise that the cost of tests can be high, which is why we are currently working with the travel industry and private testing providers to see how we can further reduce the cost of travel while ensuring that it stays safe. We are also closely monitoring the performance of private test providers to ensure that they deliver a high quality of service to customers. If they do not provide an adequate service they receive a five-day warning, and are then removed from the GOV.UK list of test providers if they do not improve. So we are cognisant of this issue and working hard to ensure that travellers can get lower-cost tests so that they can go and enjoy a summer holiday if they have booked one.

[Lord Haselhurst (Con) [V]]

My Lords, can the Leader tell us the current state of research into whether it is possible—or even advantageous—for a person’s second jab to be given with a different vaccine from the first? Such flexibility might accelerate the rollout programme still further and keep us ahead of the virus and its worrying variants.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

I thank my noble friend. He is right that research is currently ongoing; it has been backed by £7 million of government funding. We are expecting the first set of results soon; that will be the first outcome of this research.