PLF reference numbers

A snowHead

OK, so there may be some people who think this question is inappropriate/risking peoples' lives, but I am going to ask it anyway, as our first experience of the Covid admin theatre has been a complete joke-or at least it would have been, if it hadn't wasted money.
Mrs Hound and daughters got back from Spain today-first overseas holiday since Covid kicked off. Ordered three PCRs (cheapest we could find) before leaving but the PLF only asked for one number, for her. Her PLF was given a cursory (at best) glance before checking in on return, no one even looked at it on arrival in the UK-she could have put down random numbers for all anyone knew. So...
1. Given all over 5s are meant to be taking a day 2 test on return to the UK, why does the PLF only ask for a number for adults?
2. Given there are no electronic PLF checks-and I have no idea how check in staff could identify a correct reference number from a made-up one, or one which has been re-used-is there any way it could be checked if a reference number was used again?

I really can't see the point given no one actually checks if the tests are actually completed once we get home! If we were being diligent, we could have used the mountains of free NHS ones the kids have got through school. At least we have two unused PCR numbers for when we intend to go skiing in December.

A snowHead

Just filled our in & complete waste of time and money

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I think it's just a donation to the Tory party.
I paid for my test and did it, but they never sent me the results.
I'm in dispute with them and will charge them back in due course if they're not in jail by then.

Populist taxation?

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1. You are quite correct.

2. On another board I read, someone reused a number on a PLF and claimed not to have any issues (apparently they left the UK again within a day or two so hadn't actually used the test the first time round, just the number).

As for my personal experience, two of my teens' Day 2 tests never arrived back after our summer holiday. After chasing several days they had been LFTd various times for school (and they had already had a pre departure test) so I just gave up and got a refund. No repercussions yet!

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@philwig, I'm not one for conspiracy theories...but I do wonder, given our travel testing is all done privately, whether the Government gave agreement to the testing companies that they would continue with travel testing for a certain amount of time, in return for them investing in setting up the process in the first place.

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@Skimum1, Interesting, we have not used our paid-for tests, neither have we registered them with the testing company (Randox). They just arrived in the post and have been added to pile of NHS ones. Just very interested to see if the number for one we did use in the PLF could be used twice.

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I think it's probably just corruption and incompetence.

They corruptly waived the old EU government purchasing rules, then gave the contracts to their "party donor" friends, who having had zero experience are unsurprisingly incompetent.
Dido Harding led the way: McKinsey's finest, posh but useless, and eye wateringly expensive.

Once we're all levelled up these things won't happen of course. Oh. Wait...

After all it is free

You can definitely reuse them. And there’s no follow up if you don’t test.

First one I know is correct because a mate has used the same (valid) code three times. I’m pretty certain that as long as it’s in the right format (5 letters, 7 numbers) you could make it up.

And the second one I have personal experience of as daughter’s bf forgot to take his, went back home and said test is still sat here.

PLFs, however, are on the passport system, so you won’t get on a flight without one and the passport bods can see your form (if you go to the desk - I never have, always used e-gates).

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I had assumed the online interface for the PLF checked the validity of the test code and would reject wrong ones; it certainly returned a "entry correct" message when you pressed submit. But it would be interesting to try it with a random one. It needs to be something acceptable, I don't think they would let you on the flight/crossing without a record the PLF had been successfully completed.

@andy from embsay's trick is interesting though - I can imagine that if a test has been issued, its code may remain valid until a result is recorded, so if you never use the test you can re-use the code.

You know it makes sense.

@j b, I may have inadvertently used a “made up” code and it worked. I ordered tests for my daughters from a provider (I think it was alpha bio labs). They gave me an order number but asked for my daughters’ details and said they’d send the PLF code direct.

We were sat in France filling in PLFs and I gave her the order number and it was rejected as not in the right format. I spotted this and told her to add an extra zero on the front to make it 7 digits and it worked.

Then I realised afterwards they’d sent her the PLF code and it was a completely different code. So she might have got lucky and put someone’s genuine code in, or it could have been random. Certainly the first 5 letters were right (each provider has their own) but I’m pretty sure there’s no check on whether the numbers are genuine.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

A snowHead

I bought 2 x-sets of Travel LFTs from ProjectScreen/Prenetics in July for travel testing. LFT into France and pre departure LFT back to UK. All self administered and upload pic of results.
Because the rules changed, they haven't been used.
Now UK changes to a Day 2 LFT tomorrow, I emailed Prenetics and asked if I could use the tests.
The reply was No - the barcodes have changed.
Reading the Government rules, the barcode doesn't come into it. It It is only a reference between an individual and the test kit. Only the test booking reference is used between NHS and testing company and each person/test should have a different one. Of course Prenetics sold us the pairs of tests with just one booking reference for each pair.
Tried a dummy PLF run and booking ref accepted. So plan to use each number for Nov ferry return.
Pointed out to Prenetics the waste of kits and waste of £104 for me. Still awaiting response.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The testing companies don't give a poo-poo as most are just fly by night opportunists with a licence to rip off consumers.

Why govt won't accept day 2 NHS lft is purely about keeping those clowns in business. I suspect most will strip cash and then go bump.

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The important thing is to ensure that an overwhelming majority of people comply with the Covid requirements. OK, not everything may appear to be checked, but people are generally not going to risk travelling without the correct documentation. The threat of being checked is all that is required.
If people choose not to take the two day test, this would be identifiable if the authorities decide to check.
No one checks my driver licence every time I drive.

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Why should the NHS pay for LFTs for people who want to go on holiday or travel abroad? It's not an essential action.

I understand why the NHS provides kits for those going to work and school but I don't think it is much to ask for you to pay for your own tests if you choose to travel during a pandemic.

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@Hurdy, I don’t think anyone would mind paying the NHS cost price or even a bit more for a travel LFT, but the testing companies are making a stack of profit and often they are not exactly competent. Some people are getting very rich from this pandemic. Why should they?

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PLF

Palestine Liberation Front?

Peoples Front of Judea?

After all it is free

No reason why the NHS shouldn't be able to charge for these tests, using it's own facilities. Might as well let them make some money to cover the cost of treating the anti vaxers.

If they don't have their own testing facilities, then they should be given the money to fund them. The need for testing for Covid isn't going to disappear for a few years. They will then have facilities ready for when the next pandemic arrives, instead of paying through the nose to private labs.

But then you are paying for an NHS service and there starts the slippery slope....

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@Hurdy, My point is not about who pays for the tests, it is about whether they are necessary in the first place! Anyone who is keen 'to do the right thing' and check can use the mountains of boxes most people have stacked in their houses already-certainly, anyone with school aged children knows what I am talking about. Secondly, whether it is necessary to do a test at all. The original rationale for them no longer applies-they were barely checking any of them for variants anyway when they were PCR, and that can't be done at all for LFTs. And now our infection levels are so high, and higher than holiday destination countries, we will not be a net importer of CV any more.

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@brianatab, This is probably why testing has continued long after any initial usefulness it might have had. Because it's done privately, the companies need to be allowed to earn back (and more) the money they spent setting up the system in the first place.

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@snowhound, obviously we have to live with whatever we need to do if we want to travel, but that is my frustration too. There is no public health benefit in testing people 2 days after return from elsewhere - for almost everywhere the returner is at less risk of infection than people who stay put. And thankfully there are currently no threatening variants elsewhere which have not yet made it to Britain.

The cynical view is that they promised people who had made 6-figure donations to the Conservative Party that their licence to print money would be kept going until they had made many times their donation in profit. (No actual evidence for that, but things smell suspicious).

When commercial television was introduced into the UK in the 1950s I believe the head of one of the new commercial TV companies described it as "a licence to print money". I believe much the same could be said for the private Covid testing companies....

You know it makes sense.

Registered my Test on the Randox website yesterday morning. Dropped my Day 2 Randox PCR test at drop-off point in Harrogate at 13.00pm. Got the email result at 06.34am this morning.

Someone is making a fortune testing for nothing.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@j b, exactly that, ... looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks ...

Plus contagion theatre, "look what we are doing" and maintaining the unease ...

I'm about to go off the Godwin cliff here!

A snowHead

Not only did I shall out £43 for a test for teen that the PLF never asked for but I lost about 4 hours filling in useless forms that no one will ever use.

A snowHead

>I bought 2 x-sets of Travel LFTs from ProjectScreen/Prenetics....
Finally a reply. The kits can be used - but PS won't accept any liability for fines!!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

J b is probably right to be cynical about the 'need' for private tests, but it can't plausibly result from donations to political parties. Unless the test firms donated heavily to the SNP and the Labour party, in order to get the governments of scotland and wales to be even keener on covid testing and travel control than the UK gov't has been.
( For non-brit readers: the devolved governments in Cardiff & Edinburgh, not the UK government at Westminster, are responsible for public health and covid rules in Wales & Scotland respectively.)
My theory is that officialdom throughout the UK is keen on getting ever more data and management information, especially on anything to do with covid, so the more tests that people can be made to do, and the more forms they fill in, the better.
Especially when people are returning from leisure travel abroad, as from the public health standpoint, foreign holidays in the sun ( or at ski resorts) are associated with risk taking behaviour such as excessive drinking, casual sex, accidents, lack of social distancing etc. So if people are discouraged by all the hassle & form filling, so much the better.......

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Disappointed to learn that a SNOMED isn't someone who's out on the slopes ready to patch me up, if I fail to stop in time on a steep bit.....

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After all it is free

My wife flew back in August from France to Scotland with a PCR test number on the PLF as required.
She flew back again yesterday and I put the same PCR test reference number on the form which was accepted.
The system is a money making scam for a chosen few.

Does anyone know if you have to book your PLF return test before you leave to go? I'm off at the beginning of December for 11 weeks and don't want to book a test I may not have to do when get back.
Many thanks

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@pieman666, the problem is you need a test reference number to complete the PLF to then give to airline etc.

Help!!

PLF reference numbers

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