Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that affordable covid-19 testing is available for people wishing to travel overseas.

We are working with private testing providers to reduce the cost of testing. We have reduced the cost of NHS Test and Trace tests for international arrivals from £88 to £68 for fully vaccinated arrivals and from £170 to £136 for two tests for arrivals who are not fully vaccinated. Since international travel testing requirements were introduced the average cost of a day two polymerase chain reaction test has fallen to £45.

For United Kingdom residents or individuals with residency rights who would suffer severe financial hardship by paying the full cost of their managed quarantine or testing fees before they travel, hardship arrangements may be available.