Senior Conservative officials have called on health secretary Sajid Javid to take "immediate action" to end "rip-off" PCR test prices.

According to The Telegraph, former cabinet minister David Davis said it would be "perfectly sensible" to cap the prices to prevent profiteering and axe the 20% VAT charges on PCR tests.

Paul Maynard, a former aviation minister, reportedly said: "The market is not functioning well. Families should not have to pay more for tests than they do for flights. The government needs to get the CMA to respond with some degree of urgency so that families have a better chance of good value options."

Chair of the Transport Select Committee Huw Merriman MP said "passengers are being ripped off with expensive PCR tests", after claiming that only 5% of positive PCR tests had been genomically sequenced.

On Wednesday (11 August), Merriman wrote a letter to Javid asking why only a fraction of private test providers had been officially accredited, while urging the government to give "serious consideration" to more "affordable" tests.

Fully vaccinated travellers still face compulsory PCR tests on their return from both green and amber list countries.