What consideration has the Welsh Government given to allowing a range of providers to offer the travel test package as opposed to the situation at present where everyone must use the corporate travel management (CTM) portal?
Post-arrival tests for people returning to Wales are to be booked with and carried out by a public provider, i.e. the NHS. These tests are booked through the corporate travel management (CTM) web portal. CTM are the booking agent for NHS Test Trace Protect tests which are processed through the UK Lighthouse Lab network; they are not the test provider. The price for these NHS-provided tests is the same across the UK.
NHS tests are a trusted way to ensure positive cases and potentially harmful variants of COVID-19 are identified at the earliest opportunity.
There is a list of private test providers on gov.uk, but the UK Government does not endorse or recommend any specific test provider. Welsh Government is concerned about the service provided by some of these private providers and continues to seek assurance from UK Government about the performance and monitoring of those on the gov.uk list. We will keep our requirements under review.