Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of randomised covid-19 testing for international travellers arriving in the UK.

The Government considered a number of potential border measures, including randomised COVID-19 testing of international arrivals. In considering any intervention, the Government’s objective is to pursue the least interventionist measure necessary to protect public health and minimise the impact on travel and on the taxpayer. To delay any future harmful variants of COVID-19 entering the United Kingdom, we are maintaining a range of contingency measures.