James Sunderland questions the Government on efforts to simplify testing requirements for air passengers and travellers and to regulate the wildly varying and often exorbitant cost.
International Travel: Covid-19
James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)
3. What steps his Department is taking to help make international travel (a) easier and (b) less expensive during the covid-19 pandemic. (904015)
The Secretary of State for Transport (Grant Shapps)
Thanks to the successful vaccine roll-out, the Government have been able to open up international travel and help to make it cheaper to use, with 135 countries and territories now covered by our inbound vaccination policy.
James Sunderland
The aviation and travel sectors are pivotal for my constituents in Bracknell and right across the UK, sustaining many jobs and livelihoods. Will my right hon. Friend confirm what is being done to review testing requirements for passengers and travellers and to regulate the wildly varying and often exorbitant cost of testing?
Grant Shapps
As the House will know, we have reduced the number of tests required to just one single lateral flow test on day two for everybody who is vaccinated, as well as for under-18-year-olds. My hon. Friend will be interested to hear that I spoke to the Health Secretary this morning about the site that it runs to ensure that the prices shown there are accurate for the traveller, so that people can travel as normally as possible as we come to this Christmas and new-year period.