Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that minimum standards of performance and reliability are met by private-sector providers of covid-19 polymerase chain reaction tests for British nationals returning from overseas in respect of those providers accredited by his Department.

For day two and day eight testing, we closely monitor the performance, including delivery and testing services, of private providers to ensure a high-quality service to customers. Those providing inadequate services receive a five-day warning to demonstrate they have rectified their service and if they do not, are removed from the GOV.UK list. Private providers may be reinstated to the list once they have undertaken corrective action and provided the Department with such evidence.