Trips abroad for people in England can begin again from 17 May, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has announced, with no need to quarantine for travellers returning from 12 countries and territories.
The places on the first “green list” are Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, Israel and Portugal – including the Azores and Madeira. Also on the the green list are South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
Three countries are also being added to the “red list”, meaning most travel will be banned from them from 4am on Wednesday: Turkey, Nepal and the Maldives.
Travellers arriving from countries on the green list will not have to quarantine, while those on the “amber list” must self-isolate at home for 10 days, but can be released at day five if they get a negative PCR result. The red list country rules remain that any travellers must quarantine in a hotel for 10 days.
Shapps said the lists would be reviewed every three weeks – but has previously suggested major transit hubs such as the United Arab Emirates could remain on the red list indefinitely, given the number of passengers from across the world who are passing through its busy Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports.
Travellers will also be able to show a Covid passport proving they have been vaccinated to avoid quarantine in the country they travel to from the UK.
Frantic work is under way to update the NHS app, which the government wants people to use as digital verification they have been vaccinated, but there are concerns it may not be ready in time. For those unable to access the NHS app, they will be able to request a paper certificate from the NHS by ringing 119 – but not until 17 May.
Shapps’ announcement affects only people living in England. The administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have yet to update their rules. As counting continues in the Senedd and Holyrood elections, decisions will not be made there until the future first ministers are confirmed.
Foreign trips for British nationals have largely been banned since the start of 2021, in the face of mounting Covid cases and deaths that far outstretched the first wave of infections last spring.
Tougher border controls also came after the discovery of variants – including a variant in Kent believed to be more transmissible and others from South Africa and Brazil – against which scientists were concerned current vaccines could be less effective.
Along with the move to restrict people leaving the UK, the red list of countries where the more worrying variants had been found was drawn up, and all but non-British residents and nationals were banned from entering.
Ministers faced criticism for taking weeks to introduce the hotel quarantine system after they announced it, and only making those returning from about 30 countries subject to it. It later emerged that Sage, the government’s scientific advice group, warned that only a blanket approach would come close to stopping the import of new variants. That caution seemed vindicated when cases of the variant found in India began to seep into the UK, before it was added to the red list.
Boris Johnson has faced criticism from MPs, including a prominent Conservative, for leaving it so late to confirm when international travel would resume. Huw Merriman, the Tory chair of the Commons transport select committee, said earlier this week that the “bare minimum” notice that aviation businesses needed was two and a half weeks.
He added that “uncertainty has been prolonged” that could have “cost people their jobs” and said the government was in danger of “squandering the opportunity” of a fast vaccine rollout.
