Ministers 'don't know' if Covid travel rules worked, report finds

The UK’s traffic light system - which saw travellers from ‘red’ countries pay to quarantine in hotels - caused “confusion and disruption”, the Public Accounts Committee said.

Taxpayers subsidised £329m of the total £757m cost of quarantine hotels, its report added.

The government said the rules “bought vital time” to manage new variants.

A system in which countries were labelled red, amber or green - with red countries deemed to pose the greatest Covid infection risk - came into force in May 2021.

People returning from countries in each category were subject to different testing and isolation rules, with those returning from red-list countries forced to pay up to £2,200 to quarantine in a hotel for at least 10 days.

The UK’s travel rules changed 10 times between February 2021 and January 2022 and changes were not clearly communicated with travel carriers or the public, the report said.

The government did not track its spending on managing travel into the country, the MPs claimed, and does not know if the cost “was worth the disruption caused”.

Dame Meg Hillier, who chairs the committee, said:

“We can be clear on one thing - the cost to the taxpayer in subsidising expensive quarantine hotels, and more millions of taxpayers’ money blown on measures with no apparent plan or reasoning and precious few checks or proof that it was working to protect public health.”

Another case of BJ wantonly spending other taxpayers’ money where the only people to benefit were the so-called “service providers” … :roll_eyes:

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I have never understood why the Uk didnt close all of its boarders,stop flights in and out of the UK,stop train/ferry travel etc for at least 2/3 weeks full stop.
I am pretty sure covid would have not spread so wildly and viciously across the country.
It would been worth a damn good try imo.

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IIRC, BJ was tardy in closing UK borders TWICE - for “political” reasons.

20 January 2021

At the beginning of the coronavirus crisis last year, the UK did not close its borders - unlike other countries around the world - although travellers from some places were asked to quarantine for 14 days.

MPs have since expressed concern about why this targeted action was abandoned in mid-March, before the introduction of blanket quarantine measures in June.

While travel from neighbouring Pakistan was banned from April 9, the Prime Minister kept borders between India and the UK open for a further fortnight, with as many as 8,000 people flying in from the Covid hotspot between April 12 and 26.

New data reveals that at least 122 people brought the Indian variant to Britain from New Dehli and Mumbai between late March and the end of April.

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Is that Latin for Bs Omah.
Listenenig and taking the advice from out top scientists went straight out of the window.
IMO it would have still been a good idea ,but hey ho,typical Bj and co.