Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to conduct universal testing for COVID-19 at airports in England.

On 12 March 2020 the Prime Minister announced that the COVID-19 response was moving from the contain to delay phase. This phase has been initiated as there is now community transmission of the virus in the United Kingdom, i.e. transmission not directly related to travel; this has made interventions in ports of less relative importance. With the shift to the delay phase and commensurate policy changes, the Public Health England approach is that testing capacity should not be focused on airports.