In response to the rapidly spreading Coronavirus variant Omicron, Boris Johnson decreed that from mid-January, around 100,000 critical industry workers would be required to take daily lateral flow tests. The policy is designed, the PM said, to address the labour shortage crisis across the UK, keep supply chains open and fortify the NHS to withstand the pressures brought about by rising infections.

As usual, the announcement was lacking in detail, leaving many wondering who is in the scope of the policy as the figure of 100,000 workers sounds exceptionally low. The definition of key workers has changed throughout the pandemic, but guidance first issued by the UK Health Security Agency on Feb 25, 2021 included warehouse and logistics personnel as ‘essential workers’ who would be prioritised for the PCR testing scheme. The precise list of critical workers is yet to be confirmed, but it is expected to be substantially more restricted than for last year.

Nonetheless, if it extends to healthcare workers, social workers, prison staff, police officers, teachers and many more, as well as areas including “food processing and transport to our Border Force” specified in the official announcements, then it is difficult to reconcile the figure of 100,000 with the large numbers of ‘essential workers’ across the wide number of those businesses affected.

For our industry at least, this change of policy will make little difference in practice as many operators – certainly most UKWA members – are already undertaking daily testing of workers. Critically, the emerging issue being reported to us about workplace testing regimes is the lack of availability of lateral flow tests. Irrespective of the new testing rules and who is or is not included in that jurisdiction, if businesses can’t get hold of lateral flow test kits then clearly this will jeopardise the effectiveness of the policy.

Warehousing and logistics services have played a leading role in tackling the pandemic so far – the UK’s vaccination programme has been a supply chain success story, which has brought us widespread public recognition – and we are keen to continue to play our part. However, we need more clarity from the government, not only about who is covered by the new testing policy (government minister Gillian Keegan has said ‘some elements’ of transport are included, adding that not everybody in transport would be considered critical or would need to have the test every day), but also, for those who are included, what special arrangements are in place to help ensure that there are sufficient test kits available. The government has said that testing kits will be sent directly to eligible organisations, but to date there seems little evidence that this is happening.

Clare Bottle

UKWA, CEO

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