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International Travel
15 March 2022
Lead MP
Grant Shapps
Debate Type
Ministerial Statement
Tags
EconomyEnergyStandards & Ethics
Other Contributors: 13
At a Glance
Grant Shapps raised concerns about international travel in the House of Commons. A government minister responded. Other MPs also contributed.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Government Statement
After two years of strict pandemic restrictions, the UK is removing all remaining testing and quarantine requirements for international travel from Friday, March 18th. This includes scrapping passenger locator forms and aligning with devolved Administrations to implement changes across the UK. The move reflects the success of vaccine programmes in building population immunity against COVID-19. While vigilance remains crucial, less stringent measures will be used in future responses to variants, such as public health guidance instead of quarantine hotels. The minister emphasised ongoing support for international vaccination efforts and the importance of passengers being vaccinated or boosted for smoother travel abroad. A strategic framework supporting aviation jobs and net-zero commitments is promised.
Louise Haigh
Lab
Sheffield Heeley
Question
Does he agree that full transparency about his plans would boost confidence in the travel industry and for the travelling public, and can we have a commitment to publishing the contingency strategy today?
Minister reply
The Secretary of State did not provide an immediate response to this specific question.
Preet Kaur Gill
Con
Birmingham, Edgbaston
Question
How are we going to encourage more people in the UK and other countries to get vaccinated?
Minister reply
The minister emphasised that vaccination is crucial for smoother travel abroad. He reiterated the government's commitment to international vaccination efforts, such as sending 100 million vaccine doses by summer.
Mike Kane
Lab
Wythenshawe and Sale East
Question
Will the Government be setting out a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the potential for more variants emerging in future?
Minister reply
The minister acknowledged that lessons need to be learned from previous responses but did not provide specific details about a contingency strategy, citing robust measures currently in place.
Louise Haigh
Lab
Sheffield Heeley
Question
The aviation industry is a critical part of the UK economy. Labour outlines its plan to live well with covid and protect lives and livelihoods, noting that another variant may emerge. The shadow urges full transparency about contingency plans for future variants and asks for a commitment to publish this strategy today.
Minister reply
Labour should not lecture on improving the aviation industry when their own government in Wales wants to pile costs, bureaucracy, and red tape with passenger locator forms. The Minister agrees that vaccination is crucial but criticises Labour's stance against freezing fuel duty, which saved £15 per gallon for average family cars. He also points out that rail fares have risen at nearly half the level of inflation, representing a real-terms cut.
Question
Welcomes the Secretary of State's announcement and praises his efforts to support the aviation sector over the past two years. Asks about Border Force resources for increased capacity in summer.
Minister reply
Agrees that ensuring Border Force is adequately resourced as airports get busier will be important, especially with e-gates saving up to six seconds per passenger and reducing queueing times.
Gavin Newlands
SNP
Paisley and Renfrewshire North
Question
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his statement. It has become increasingly clear that the much vaunted four-nations approach often stems from situations where the devolved Governments are left with little choice, given the nature of the devolution funding settlement... Is this another example of the UK Government making a decision, and strong-arming the devolved Administrations into following them to avoid economic disadvantage?
Minister reply
I should point out to the hon. Gentleman and the House that the UK Health Security Agency is a four-nations body made up of the chief medical officers from all parts of the United Kingdom, including Scotland... Secondly, we have the programme led by the Office for National Statistics that carries on finding out where coronavirus is in the country and the extent to which different variants might be starting to take hold. We can therefore continue to monitor things comprehensively through both genomic sequencing and the covid-19 infection survey of the population.
Henry Smith
Con
Crawley
Question
May I express my gratitude to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for removing all covid-19 international travel restrictions for those coming into the United Kingdom? Will he join me in welcoming the reopening of the south terminal at Gatwick airport on 27 March and the thousands of job vacancies now available and needing to be filled as we recover our industry and our economy?
Minister reply
I do not think it is too much of an exaggeration to say that virtually nobody in the House has done more than my hon. Friend to promote the case of the hard-pressed aviation sector during the last two years of the crisis... I know that he shares my enthusiasm for all the work that carried on during the crisis to aim for jet zero, to help clean up the aviation sector and ensure that, by 2050, we have not only a booming British aviation sector but a cleaner one.
Ben Bradshaw
Lab
Exeter
Question
I am delighted that England is following Norway, Ireland, Hungary and several other countries in lifting all remaining travel restrictions. Will the Secretary of State assure me that when the public inquiry into covid happens, it will have full access to all the various and quite secretive committees that the Government relied on when they imposed those travel restrictions?
Minister reply
For the sake of completeness, I will mention Ireland, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway and Slovenia, which have either removed or will shortly remove measures to put themselves in the same position... The inquiry will be there to learn the lessons from covid, and it is incredibly important that it does so not just in relation to travel but across everything that happened during covid.
Peter Bone
Con
Wellingborough
Question
I have learned from being in this House that when the Government do something good and well, few Opposition Back Benchers turn up—we have only one today—and the three shadow Ministers have heckled from a sedentary position because they know that the Government have done a good job. Is it not true that the Prime Minister’s leadership by getting the vaccine and unlocking our society has allowed us to have freedom day for travel this Friday?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We all remember Margaret Keenan receiving that very first properly approved vaccination in the entire world, and that happened in this country... However, it is only three more sleeps, is it not? I hope that my hon. Friend can contain himself.
Greg Smith
Con
Mid Buckinghamshire
Question
I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement. It is the right thing to do and, as I have said before, freedom works. However, may I press him on his answer to the Chair of the Transport Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman) about ensuring that, after a period of having been wound down to deal with fewer passengers, ports of entry are ready to give that warm British welcome to people either returning home or visiting for travel and leisure?
Minister reply
I absolutely will do that. I know that Border Force has been working hard, sometimes under difficult conditions... As a passenger put their passport down on an egate, it was reading not only their passport for permission to enter but checking the passenger locator form, their vaccination status and how they had filled in the form—it was doing an awful lot of work behind the scenes. Updates, unfortunately, commonly caused breaks in that system.
Stourbridge
Question
I think that everybody in the House will warmly welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement about extra vaccines being distributed around the world. Will he ensure that a list of countries receiving them is put in the Library for us to check? Will he assure me that a good number of very poor Commonwealth countries are prioritised in the programme?
Minister reply
It is certainly the case that the vast majority of the vaccinations through Oxford-AstraZeneca have gone to mid and lower-income countries. Many will have been used by Commonwealth countries. I should have answered in detail the point made on that by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Louise Haigh). I will place a note in the House of Commons Library to provide a breakdown of where those have gone and answer the further question about how the 100 million is worked out. But I think all of us in the House, regardless of which side we sit on, can be incredibly proud of this country’s literally global lead in protecting the world against coronavirus.
Richard Graham
Con
Gloucester
Question
Axing all the remaining covid restrictions for outgoing travellers will be warmly welcomed by those working in the travel, aviation, airport and aerospace sectors, including my wife and many Gloucester constituents. Those are all areas of expertise and employment across the UK. Does my right hon. Friend share my pride and enthusiasm for the new record-breaking electric aircraft, the Spirit of Innovation, developed at Gloucestershire airport, and the new hydrogen aircraft developed at Kemble airport, also in Gloucestershire, showing that in a county famed for the first ever jet-engined aircraft take-off, we can now focus on an exciting future for travel and aviation at much less cost to the environment?
Minister reply
I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. I do not want to disappoint him or his wife. It is incoming traffic that will have the reduction in bureaucracy. On outgoing, we still encourage people to check with the FCDO. As I pointed out a couple of times, most other countries still have some restrictions. But is he right about that electric aircraft, which is a Rolls-Royce project—the world’s fastest flying electric aircraft being produced right here in the UK? He is. ZeroAvia is producing the world’s first hydrogen aircraft, which is now on its second version, a larger 20-seat aircraft. There is a lot of innovation, backed by £180 million, to assist all this decarbonisation of aviation. It is very exciting and it leads to a very strong future for British aviation.
Shadow Comment
Louise Haigh
Shadow Comment
The Labour Party's shadow minister criticised the government’s lack of transparency regarding contingency plans for future variants and questioned the feasibility of delivering 77 million vaccine doses in three months. She highlighted that economic factors such as tax hikes, rising energy bills, and petrol prices pose significant barriers to travel rather than remaining travel restrictions. The opposition also called for a comprehensive plan to tackle the cost of living crisis.
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