The Home Secretary responded by underscoring the necessity of the measures announced today to protect public health. She acknowledged questions about implementation but did not provide specific answers, instead emphasising that these steps are crucial to reducing transmission risks.

The Home Secretary confirmed that discussions are underway with hotel chains to ensure adequate provision of rooms for the mandatory 10-day quarantine. She also stated that further details on this approach will be provided by the Department of Health and Social Care next week.

The Home Secretary acknowledged the importance of supporting affected sectors but did not provide a specific timeline for a sector-specific support package. She emphasised that protecting public health is paramount and that all necessary steps will be taken to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Home Secretary Priti Patel responded by emphasising previous measures since January 2020, including Foreign Office advice, statutory instruments, and test and release policies. She outlined new enhancements such as increased police presence at ports, borders, and airports; enhanced IAS checks with more than 5,000 daily contacts; targeted follow-up visits increasing by about 1,000 per day.

Home Secretary Priti Patel acknowledged that logistical challenges exist but emphasised the importance of keeping freight moving. She confirmed that changes in guidance and advice will be communicated across Government Departments, including the Department for Health and Social Care, the Department for Transport, and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

First, I repeat that we work with all devolved Administrations. Regarding precautions at the start of the pandemic, self-isolation measures were introduced from January 2020 onwards, including guidance for UK airports and travel advice by FCDO. We introduced mandatory quarantine and passenger locator form in June last year, closed borders to Denmark after strain identification, and introduced test and release and pre-travel testing bans on flights from South Africa. Each measure adds a layer of protection against virus transmission.

My hon. Friend is right in speaking of the sector as an operational partner with which we work every day. Discussions continue regarding new lists or travel bans and necessary support will be provided.

I thank the right hon. Lady for her question. Every measure introduced across Government provides degrees of protection; travel bans are in place for red-listed countries, and measures announced today will reduce the number of travellers. Border Force has given examples to show unacceptable behaviour by some travellers. The hotel measures and package under discussion aim to reduce risk and ensure proper quarantine.

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; the Opposition’s flip-flopping and claims are not helpful. The Government will take action on rolling out travel bans to other countries where new strains emerge.

The right hon. Gentleman is right to highlight such circumstances; the Government are already discussing exemptions and support packages, although details cannot be confirmed yet as work is ongoing.

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; all airport operators take responsibility for enforcing coronavirus measures and restrictions, including social distancing and keeping passengers apart.

I thank the hon. Lady for her important question. Border Force staff are on the frontline day in, day out trying to protect the public from the spread of the virus. They are doing exceptional work, and yesterday I thanked them for the work they are doing. In terms of measures that are in place to protect them, I am absolutely focused on protecting our Border Force staff. It is absolutely right that that takes place. The head of Border Force and my colleagues across the Border Force team have been working assiduously with all Border Force colleagues, particularly at Heathrow airport, because it is a busy airport as we saw that on Saturday night, when queues formed because we are enforcing 100% compliance checks. With that, of course, I come back to my point about working with Heathrow Airport Ltd on the measures it is putting in place for social distancing, keeping passengers distanced from Border Force staff and, of course, ensuring that my staff are protected. That is my No. 1 priority.

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Cases of medical exemptions and emergencies have always been on the exemption list, and the exemption list is under review right now. Colleagues across all Government Departments are reviewing the exemption list. When changes are made, they will be publicised through the usual channels. Anything that would also affect overseas territories will also be under consideration, and that will also be put in the public domain.

First, it is important to recognise that we do have numbers in terms of how many people are coming through our border every single day. These new measures—it is important to put this in context—will bring those numbers even further down. We still have a lot of British nationals who are travelling, and the advice and the guidance are clear that people should not be travelling and should be staying at home. Through the enforcement measures, that will reduce dramatically. The Government are already working out capacity in terms of hotel accommodation in the light of the period of self-isolation that will be required. The Government will happily share those figures with colleagues in due course.

I give my hon. Friend every assurance that we are working together across Transport, the Treasury and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on the aviation and travel sector. Conversations and discussions are under way. As I said earlier, they are our operational partners. We work collectively with them, so those discussions are under way, and I just give my hon. Friend that assurance.

With regard to hotels and these measures, as I have already indicated, that work is under way in terms of looking at the procurement of hotels, who the partners are going to be and also further information around them. Government will be setting out over the coming days further information with regard to hotels and the processes around them. As I indicated earlier, discussions on logistical and operational aspects of that work are under way right now, so my colleagues will come back to the House and provide that information.

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Border Force is doing incredible work on the frontline; I am seeing that and getting reports of that every single day. It is important that its staff stay safe, which is why we have strong measures in place for them. Enforcement, whether it is through policing or the IAS, has been accelerated, along with the checks. The fact of the matter is that we have clear checks: the passenger locator form must be completed, there are fines for non-compliance, and there is a requirement for self-isolation for arrivals. These measures and checks are in place, and they will be increased to protect public health.

I refer the hon. Gentleman to my statement and the measures that have been announced. It is important to recognise that every single measure that has been put in place, including a ban on international travel for high-risk countries, is to protect the British public. Those measures, along with all the other measures announced today, are part of the layer of protection to reduce transmission of the virus and reduce the risk of a new, dangerous variant coming into the United Kingdom.

I mentioned in my statement that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Department of Health and Social Care are now supporting other countries around the world when it comes to gene sequencing and genomic testing capabilities, which will help to identify new strains and new variants. That is important, because it is a vital step in the global response, in terms of not just protecting our public here but identifying new and dangerous strains that could go around the world and then come to the UK.

My right hon. Friend asks a very important question. In terms of permanency, we are living with this virus; that is a fact. In better news, we are just weeks away from seeing people who have had the vaccine develop immunity, so circumstances are changing. We have known throughout this situation that things change, so we keep all our measures under review—whether it is changes to travel bans for specific countries or other measures, they will always be under review. The Government will not hesitate to take measures when it comes to preventing a new strain from coming to the United Kingdom once it has been identified and making sure that we take the right measures to protect the public. As I have said a number of times, at every stage we will keep the House informed and, importantly, we will make sure that advice is communicated to the British public, so that when things change, including at the border, they are kept informed.

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the point that I made earlier that there is no single measure that mitigates risk or eradicates risk entirely. Every aspect, every measure that has been brought into place, since January last year and more recently, has helped to reduce the risk of the spread of coronavirus and protect our world-leading vaccine programme.

My hon. Friend is absolutely right because it is social contact—contact with people—that spreads this virus, which is why the measures in place, but also the current advice with lockdown, are to stay at home and not to travel.

That is absolutely right. My hon. Friend, like me, will recognise the incredible work that took place in December, and actually is still taking place when it comes to testing road hauliers to allow the flow of goods and freight.

On Government health measures at the border, the hon. Gentleman will be very clear—I suggest that he reads my statement yesterday and the points that were made then—on the measures that have been brought in since January last year. Border Force has checked over 3.7 million passengers and, specifically with regard to fixed penalty notices, thousands of FPNs have been issued; fines have been issued as well.

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to speak of clandestine entry. First of all, rules will apply, and testing will apply, to everyone with regard to illegal entry to the United Kingdom and those seeking to claim asylum.

It is important to put this into the context of travel and the measures and checks that we have put in place around compliance. I have already stated that Border Force is undertaking 100% checks at PCPs.