Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether companies contracted to provide covid-19 tests to people returning to the UK have to adhere to a threshold of successful on time (a) deliveries and (b) results in order to keep their contracts with his Department.

Private providers which are listed on GOV.UK have declared and evidenced compliance with the relevant minimum standards for testing services, including the relevant stage of the United Kingdom Accreditation Service accreditation if the provider is processing tests or taking swabs. The minimum standards are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/testing-on-day-2-and-day-8-for-international-arrivals

The Department is continuing to monitor each provider supplying testing for international arrivals, including assessment of their delivery, customer service and reporting services. We are also carefully monitoring issues raised by the public about private test providers, raising every complaint with providers. We are taking rapid action with companies where appropriate. Providers delivering inadequate services receive a five-day warning to demonstrate they have rectified their service and if they are unable to do so, they are removed from the GOV.UK list.