Day 2 arrival tests for double jabbed holidaymakers returning to the UK are set to be axed as soon as Monday - and the passenger locator form could also be simplified 

• Double jabbed arrivals might not have to take rapid lateral flow test after day 2 
• Ministers will meet to discuss the rules on the Covid traveller testing system
• The Passenger Locator Form has to be filled out within 48 hours of arriving in UK
• Passengers complained that it is cumbersome and asks pointless questions 

The Covid traveller testing system could be ditched for fully vaccinated holidaymakers as soon as Monday.

It is understood the rapid lateral flow test that double-jabbed arrivals must take by day two is likely to be ditched when ministers meet to discuss the rules.

The passenger locator form that holidaymakers must complete online before travelling to the UK could also be simplified.

The form has to be filled out within 48 hours of arriving in Britain but passengers have complained that it is cumbersome and asks pointless questions, such as how long returning citizens plan to stay in the country.

A meeting of the Cabinet’s ‘Covid O’ committee will also discuss whether ‘fully vaccinated’ status for travellers should mean having two or three jabs. 

Ministers are understood to be considering keeping it as two until spring.

At this point, double-jabbed travellers could again become subject to needing tests and only those with a booster would be able to travel test-free.

However, destination countries may still require testing.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is understood to be pushing for the removal of all testing for the fully vaccinated.

Scrapping the day two test would give the hard-hit travel industry another boost after the Government scrapped pre-return tests and costly post-arrival PCR swabs earlier this month.

As it stands, returning double-jabbed Britons must take one rapid lateral flow test by day two. If positive, they must take a confirmatory PCR test.

Unvaccinated travellers will remain subject to multiple tests and self-isolation. It came as new scientific analysis found that travel tests have no effect in stemming the spread of imported Covid variants unless the measures are brought in within a day of the strain first being brought into the country.

The study by the analytics firm Edge Health and Oxera, a specialist research consultancy, found curbs can only delay the peak of a new strain by between two and eight days.

For the Omicron variant, it took the UK 16 days to detect and react to it.

The research, funded by Airlines UK and Manchester Airports Group, has been handed to ministers to support the case for scrapping remaining testing.

Airlines UK boss Tim Alderslade said: ‘Testing restrictions for the fully vaccinated make no sense at all given the delay in governments being able to detect and act on the arrival of a new variant, as we saw with Omicron.’

He added: ‘This is something the World Health Organisation themselves have admitted. Not only do they fail to suppress the international spread of variants, they place a disproportionate burden on the travel sector and those that rely on the connectivity that aviation provides.’

He added: ‘We need to be smarter in how we deal with future variants rather than resorting to blanket but wholly ineffective measures. Otherwise, we will never be able to truly say that we are “living with Covid”.’

Ben Bradshaw, a member of the Commons transport committee, said: ‘It’s high time the Government scrapped all testing requirements for vaccinated travellers.

‘These have had minimal or zero effect in controlling the virus but have done untold damage to our travel industry and caused huge problems for the public.

‘There is also little point in retaining the passenger locator form – a quick check of vaccine status at departure should suffice.’