UK Inquiry Tracker

Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 25 Apr 2022 Closed: 14 Oct 2022 Parliament page

Putting cross-border travel measures in place during the COVID-19 pandemic often at speed to time-pressured deadlines then adapting and sustaining them required considerable efforts by government and others. Although individual departments have been monitoring their own spending on implementing cross-border travel measures in response to COVID-19, the National Audit Office … Read more

10 Recommendations

20 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

2 Letters

1 Event

Activity timeline 6 events

14 Oct
2022

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Sixteenth report from Session 2022-23

26 Jul
2022

Report published

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic

5 Jul
2022

Correspondence

Correspondence from Dame Meg Hillier, Chair, Committee of Public Accounts to Patricia Hayes, Second Permanent Secretary, Home Office, re Ma…

14 Jun
2022

Correspondence

Correspondence from Gareth Davies CB, Second Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport, re Managing cross-border travel during the COVI…

23 May
2022

Oral evidence

Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic

23 May
2022

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House

Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

23 May 2022

View on parliament.uk

Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic

Alex Chisholm · Cabinet Office Gareth Davies · Department for Transport Patricia Hayes · Home Office Phil Douglas · Border Force Shona Dunn · Home Office

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-border travel during the COVID…	HC 29	26 Jul 2022	30	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

14 results

2 Recommendation Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

Government does not know whether it achieved value for money from the £486 million that...

Government does not know whether it achieved value for money from the £486 million that it spent implementing measures. Government did not track spending on implementing health measures, but the National Audit Office estimated that, across the five Departments involved, … Read more Government does not know whether it achieved value for money from the £486 million that it spent implementing measures. Government did not track spending on implementing health measures, but the National Audit Office estimated that, across the five Departments involved, government spent £486 million in 2021–22. We are concerned that government did not attempt to measure whether its health measures were successful, particularly as research commissioned by the airport industry suggested health measures only delayed the peak in the number of cases from new variants by seven days. People travelling from red-list countries had to stay in hotels provided by the MQS, and the rate at which people in quarantine hotels were testing positive was higher than the general population. However, only 2% of quarantined guests tested positive. While the Department of Health & Social Care asserts that the service was value for money as part of the totality of health interventions against COVID-19, it could not tell us what the overall impact of quarantine hotels themselves had been, other than preventing around 12,000 cases entering the country. In total, the quarantine service cost £757 million. While it was meant to be self-funding, the taxpayer has ended up subsidising £329 million, almost half the bill, with the rest passed to people travelling. This was despite increasing the cost to individuals to more than £2,200 for a single adult over 10 days in August 2021. The number of people quarantining started to fall once countries were removed from the red list, and ministers decided that continuing to recover the full cost from people quarantining would have required raising the cost per person to unreasonably high levels. 6 Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic Recommendation: Cabinet Office, working with HM Treasury, should set out and publish, within six months, how cross-government portfolios should report and track their overall cost, including: • Setting out Show less

Government Response

HM Treasury will consider what additional guidance should be issued to departments on how cross-government portfolios should report and track their overall cost on an ongoing basis, as part of ongoing work looking at improving joint working across government. HM Treasury will write to the Committee with an update by Spring 2023.

HM Treasury

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3 Recommendation Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

Government’s failure to communicate the reasons for frequent changes to health measures made it hard...

Government’s failure to communicate the reasons for frequent changes to health measures made it hard for the public to understand and adhere to them. Ministers changed the rules that people had to follow under the traffic light system at least … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees and notes key lessons learned on communicating with the public through cross-channel campaigns, including the need for agile approaches, research and feedback sessions, simple language, mutually supported communications, strategic communications, volume, clarity, timeliness, paid-for media, and communication through local, regional and national partners.

HM Treasury

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4 Recommendation Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

Government did not strike the right balance between its reliance on the travel industry to...

Government did not strike the right balance between its reliance on the travel industry to implement travel controls and the support it provided. Carriers were legally responsible for checking that everyone travelling to the UK had submitted a Passenger Locator … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation, recognising the important role that transport operators played in enabling the UK’s COVID-19 border response and the speed they had to adapt their operations to the changing situation. As part of contingency planning for future COVID-19 variants and broader pandemic preparedness, the government is considering all lessons learned, including how departments worked with industry partners.

HM Treasury

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6 Conclusion Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

DHSC failed to adequately protect the taxpayer from fraud in the Managed Quarantine Service (MQS),...

DHSC failed to adequately protect the taxpayer from fraud in the Managed Quarantine Service (MQS), and is not pursuing the fraud that it has identified vigorously enough. There was substantial fraud against the MQS programme. At 1 March 2022, DHSC … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and the UK Health Security Agency has already provided the Committee with a quarterly update on chargeback and hardship recoveries and the next letter will be sent by the end of September with responses to the recommendations.

HM Treasury

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7 Recommendation Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

The Cabinet Office failed to bring together how risks were identified and managed across the...

The Cabinet Office failed to bring together how risks were identified and managed across the portfolio of programmes for implementing health measures at the border. We have repeatedly found that the pandemic has exposed limitations in how government manages risks, … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury will work with the Cabinet Office to develop guidance on aggregating and managing risks at a portfolio level, and undertake a review of approaches taken on some other cross-government portfolios. HM Treasury will write to the Committee with an update by January 2023.

HM Treasury

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10 Conclusion Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

From February 2021, until all travel measures were withdrawn in March 2022, private sector carriers...

From February 2021, until all travel measures were withdrawn in March 2022, private sector carriers were legally responsible for some additional document checks required as part of the travel measures. Border Force told us that the administration of some measures, … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation to set out how it would support industry partners if health measures were reintroduced and will capture lessons learned through engagement with transport operators. They note the importance of regular engagement, updated guidance, and the intent to use the least stringent measures possible in the future.

HM Treasury

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11 Conclusion Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

We received written evidence from Manchester Airports Group, which told us that, if passenger numbers...

We received written evidence from Manchester Airports Group, which told us that, if passenger numbers remained as they were when testing requirements were in place, it would cost the UK economy £16 billion per year. It also estimated that travellers … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury

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12 Conclusion Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

The NAO found that making changes at short notice in the fast-moving environment of the...

The NAO found that making changes at short notice in the fast-moving environment of the pandemic was inevitable, but the processes for communicating these changes to those responsible for implementing them, in advance of a public announcement, were not timely. … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and explains what it has learned about communicating with the public effectively and what it will do differently in the future, including key lessons learned for future cross-channel campaigns.

HM Treasury

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14 Recommendation Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

In our report Government preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons for government on risk management,...

In our report Government preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons for government on risk management, we concluded that the pandemic has exposed limitations in how government manages risks, especially those that cut across institutional boundaries. We said government needs to … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury will work with the Cabinet Office to develop guidance, consistent with the principles-based approach in the Orange Book, on aggregating and managing risks at a portfolio level. They will also review approaches taken on some other cross-government portfolios to understand where the new guidance could be used and provide an update to the Committee by January 2023.

HM Treasury

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15 Conclusion Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

The NAO found that while government implemented controls through both its committee structures and individual...

The NAO found that while government implemented controls through both its committee structures and individual departmental programmes, it had not set out risks for the overall system of border measures in one place. It found that government had not adopted … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury

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21 Recommendation Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

As of 1 March 2022, DHSC was owed £74 million from people who had not...

As of 1 March 2022, DHSC was owed £74 million from people who had not paid for their stay in the MQS or had not paid for their PCR tests. DHSC told us that it had allowed people using the … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees with the recommendation and states that the UK Health Security Agency has already provided the Committee with a quarterly update on chargeback and hardship recoveries, with the next letter to be sent by the end of September including responses to the specific points raised.

HM Treasury

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22 Recommendation Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

By January 2022, DHSC had only investigated two fraud cases and so far had only...

By January 2022, DHSC had only investigated two fraud cases and so far had only recovered £1 million. We asked whether DHSC had published data on amounts recovered and it confirmed it had not, but agreed to provide this information … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and UKHSA has already provided the Committee with a quarterly update on chargeback and hardship recoveries, and the next letter will be sent by the end of September with responses to the recommendations.

HM Treasury

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23 Conclusion Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

DHSC allowed people facing financial hardship to stay in quarantine hotels or buy tests without...

DHSC allowed people facing financial hardship to stay in quarantine hotels or buy tests without paying upfront. At 1 March 2022, DHSC was owed around £54 million from people who have not paid their bill. DHSC allowed people to self-certify … Read more

Government Response

The UK Health Security Agency has already provided the Committee with a quarterly update on chargeback and hardship recoveries.

HM Treasury

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25 Conclusion Accepted

Sixteenth Report - Managing cross-…

The NAO estimated that government spent at least £486 million on cross-border travel measures in...

The NAO estimated that government spent at least £486 million on cross-border travel measures in 2021–22 across the five main departments responsible for the system. Government did not track the cost of implementing cross-border travel measures. The Cabinet Office said … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury

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Government Response AI assessment · 23 of 10 classified

Accepted 14

Acknowledged 4

Not Addressed 1

Rejected 4

Total 10 recs + 20 conclusions

Correspondence 2 letters

5 Jul 2022 Correspondence from Dame Meg Hillier, Chair, Committee of Public Accounts to Patricia Hayes, Second Permanent Secretary, Home Office, re Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, 29 June 2022

Parliament page

14 Jun 2022 Correspondence from Gareth Davies CB, Second Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport, re Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, dated 6 June 2022

Parliament page