No evidence that £500m Covid traffic light system worked
It caused months of confusion and cost travellers thousands in quarantine costs, yet ministers don’t know if the £500m Covid traffic light system actually worked.
Nor are they sure the cost was worth the disruption caused.
The testing and quarantine rules were changed 10 times between February 2021 and January 2022, the report by the public accounts committee said.
Travel companies blamed the traffic light system for the slow recovery of foreign travel
“Managing cross-border travel was an essential part of health measures introduced by government during the pandemic,” the report said. “
“Despite spending at least £486m on implementing its traffic light system to manage travel, the government did not track its spending on managing cross-border travel or set clear objectives. “
Despite the costs of more than £2,200 quarantine from red country, only 2% of travellers in hotel quarantine tested positive.
“The approach to border controls and quarantine caused huge confusion and disruption. Now we can see that it is not clear what this achieved,” said committee chair, Dame Meg Hillier.
Ray Monty
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