The cost of coronavirus travel tests has been criticised by a former watchdog boss after it emerged that just a tiny fraction are being checked for variants.
Lord Tyrie, ex-chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority, lashed out after analysis of NHS Test and Trace data found that £26.7million was spent by arrivals into the UK in the three weeks to July 21.
Around 5,000 of the PCR tests came back positive over this period, and of these just 293 or 5.9% were checked for new variants.
He branded the system a "predictable Covid rip-off".
It comes despite the government emphasising that PCR tests for international travel are needed to help monitor new Covid mutations, with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps saying last week that they are helpful to “keep a very close eye on variants”.
The proportion of positive tests being sequenced for Covid variants was less than one in twenty for top holiday destinations including France (4.9%), Greece (3.5%) and Portugal (4.2%).
Only one in twelve (8.4%) positive tests of arrivals from Spain, the most popular travel destination, were checked for variants, compared to one in ten (10.2%) from Italy.
For the United States, the second top country for UK arrivals, just one in 27 (3.66%) positive tests were sequenced for new variants.
It means arrivals from the country are paying out an average of £315,000 on PCR tests for each positive result sequenced, compared to £188,000 for France, £144,000 for Greece, £133,000 for Portugal and £31,000 for Spain.
Across all countries around £90,000 was spent for each sequenced result.
Commenting on the findings, Liberal Democrat Health, Wellbeing and Social Care spokesperson, Munira Wilson MP said: “Testing at borders is crucial to ensure that potentially dangerous new variants do not arrive in the UK. Grant Shapps said as much only last week, yet this isn’t the reality on the ground. Travellers are paying through the nose for a system that isn’t doing its job.
“The Government is not only dragging its feet over the cost of PCR tests but isn’t even using most of them to track new variants. They must cap the cost of PCR tests for travel and ensure that as many as possible are sequenced for new variants.”
In recent weeks the cost of coronavirus tests for those looking to get out of the country has come under close scrutiny.
Lord Tyrie said that they are a "predictable Covid rip-off" and suggested the competition regulator had been "too slow to react" to complaints about testing providers.
Many of the tests on offer from the 400 firms listed on the government's website cost significantly more than £100, although the average price is £75.
Lord Tyrie told the BBC that the CMA "could and should have been better prepared" when it came to regulating the price of testing.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are a world leader in genomics with over 600,000 positive COVID-19 samples having been genomically sequenced during this pandemic.”
“NHS Test and Trace sequences all viable samples from anyone returning from a red list country who tests positive for Covid-19 so we can continue to track any new variants.”
