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International Travel Rules
19 July 2021
Lead MP
Robert Courts
Debate Type
Ministerial Statement
Tags
Foreign AffairsCulture, Media & SportStandards & Ethics
Other Contributors: 40
At a Glance
Robert Courts raised concerns about international travel rules 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
Following a difficult period for the aviation industry, new rules have come into effect allowing fully vaccinated individuals to travel to nearly all amber list countries without isolation upon return. These changes also relax the do-not-travel advice for amber countries, benefiting both the aviation and tourism sectors ahead of the summer season. Since today, children under 18 no longer need to self-isolate when returning to England, making family reunions and holidays more accessible. Children aged four and under remain exempt from travel testing; those aged five to ten require a day two PCR test only, while eleven to eighteen-year-olds must take both pre-departure tests and day two PCRs. The government's decision to exclude France from the new arrangements for vaccinated individuals is due to concerns over the beta variant in France, though this variant predominantly affects Réunion Island, not mainland France. Additionally, there have been changes to the traffic-light system: Bulgaria, Croatia, Hong Kong, Taiwan (green list), and the Balearic Islands and British Virgin Islands (amber list) were added; Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Sierra Leone are on the red list. The government remains committed to reviewing these measures regularly.
Jim McMahon
Lab Co-op
Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton
Question
Inquires about the Transport Secretary’s self-isolation status and criticises the government for confusion in travel rules. Questions the delay in adding India to the red list, highlighting inconsistencies with Réunion Island's beta variant situation.
Minister reply
The minister responds by defending the government's actions as cautious and based on evidence, contrasting this with perceived contradictions from Labour’s stance previously. Acknowledges disruption caused by excluding France but justifies it for public health reasons.
Question
Welcomes the relaxation of travel restrictions to amber countries but raises concerns about disruptions due to the exclusion of France. Requests data publication on this decision and a review before three weeks.
Minister reply
The minister acknowledges the disruption caused by excluding France but emphasises the necessity for public health protection. He confirms that all policies are under constant review, with assessments every three weeks, and reassures about clarity regarding AstraZeneca vaccine acceptance in EU countries.
Gavin Newlands
SNP
Glasgow North East
Question
Inquires about the UK Government's decision on travel from France, its notice to devolved Administrations, and the need for a specific package of support for the entire aviation sector. Raises concerns over the lack of international recognition compared with competitors.
Minister reply
The Government maintains an ongoing programme of engagement with all interested parties, including devolved Administrations, and continues to talk to international partners to understand how they may best be assisted.
Edward Leigh
Con
Gainsborough
Question
Urges the Minister to advise people against travelling abroad this summer due to uncertain conditions and risks.
Minister reply
The Government takes a balanced approach, enabling travel but ensuring it is robust and sustainable while protecting public health.
Wendy Chamberlain
Lib Dem
North East Fife
Question
Asks about steps the Government are taking towards developing mutual recognition of vaccines for international travellers.
Minister reply
The Government continues to work bilaterally with international partners, including the WHO and ICAO, to find an international solution as soon as possible.
Sara Britcliffe
Con
Hyndburn
Question
Concerned about constituents who have booked holidays but are forced into isolation due to close contacts. Asks if discussions between Departments will resolve this before 16 August.
Minister reply
Discussions across Government continue, and the House will be updated when possible.
Warrington North
Question
Highlights the need for real assurances that the aviation industry will receive support beyond business rates relief.
Minister reply
Acknowledges the importance of Manchester and Liverpool airports, welcomes the airport and ground operations support scheme, and emphasises the need to enable people to fly again.
Paul Howell
Con
Sedgefield
Question
Questions the Opposition's position on travel restrictions and encourages everyone to get vaccinated.
Minister reply
Encourages all to get vaccinated, which is key for restoring freedoms and enabling airports like Teesside International airport to take off again.
Jim Shannon
DUP
Strangford
Question
Concerned about constituents struggling with travel restrictions while trying to visit ill relatives abroad.
Minister reply
Acknowledges the importance of enabling safe and sustainable travel for those visiting ill relatives, offers assistance if needed.
Damian Green
Con
Ashford
Question
Asks about removing Operation Brock on the M20 in Kent due to reduced travel numbers.
Minister reply
Recognises the disruption and agrees that Operation Brock will be deployed for as short a period as possible, with a meeting arranged between KRF and interested MPs.
Mary Foy
Lab
City of Durham
Question
Requests clarity on testing requirements for those returning to the UK after having tested positive abroad.
Minister reply
Offers to write to the MP to provide precise guidance on testing requirements, ensuring constituents can receive accurate information.
Joy Morrissey
Con
Beaconsfield
Question
Inquires about the Government's review of travel corridors and commitment to aviation sector in future months.
Minister reply
The Minister emphasises that the aviation sector is vital for connectivity, employment, and the UK’s global standing. The Government will continue reviewing measures and policies around international travel.
Sarah Owen
Lab
Luton North
Question
Requests specific support for the aviation sector during a second summer of reduced travel.
Minister reply
Acknowledges the difficulties faced by the sector but mentions £7 billion in cross-economy support and the AGOSS scheme. The Government will continue to review support measures.
Mike Wood
Con
Kingswinford and South Staffordshire
Question
Asks about restoring freedoms lost due to travel restrictions.
Minister reply
Agrees that vaccines have been a national success story, allowing the Government to examine ways to restore some freedoms, including international travel.
Dave Doogan
SNP
Angus and Perthshire Glens
Question
Questions consumer confidence amid continued restrictions and calls for dedicated support.
Minister reply
Acknowledges the challenges but emphasises the need to restart international travel sustainably and robustly, protecting public health.
Question
Inquires about reconsidering Dubai's red list status due to its high vaccination rate.
Minister reply
Reiterates that categorisations are reviewed continuously based on data from the Joint Biosecurity Centre.
Newcastle upon Tyne North
Question
Asks for a targeted comprehensive support package and harmonisation of quarantine rules.
Minister reply
Acknowledges the importance of Newcastle International airport to constituents' jobs and mentions efforts to reduce testing costs.
Question
Queries the rapid change in self-isolation rules for France and reasons behind singling out France.
Minister reply
Explains that speed is necessary sometimes to protect public health, highlighting the variability of data during a pandemic.
Sammy Wilson
DUP
East Antrim
Question
Proposes increasing green countries and granting mutual recognition of vaccine certificates.
Minister reply
Explains that decisions are data-led by the Joint Biosecurity Centre but expresses hope for expanding the green list and mutual recognising vaccines.
Question
Asks if travel advice from Foreign Office has changed alongside Transport Department.
Minister reply
Clarifies that DfT advice is about risk of importing variants into UK while Foreign Office considers other factors like political stability and healthcare in destination countries.
Question
Critiques the traffic light system as causing uncertainty for travel industry.
Minister reply
Defends the robustness of the system, noting it is more advanced than others globally.
Alec Shelbrooke
Con
Wetherby and Easingwold
Question
The travel agent industry is struggling due to lack of clarity on when the current amber-list countries restrictions will end. Can the Minister urge the Chancellor and Secretary of State for Transport to provide new grants to support this critical sector?
Minister reply
We recognise the importance of the travel agency sector, including employment and tax contributions. We continue to engage with the industry and all government departments to understand how best to support it while ensuring public health.
Toby Perkins
Lab
Chesterfield
Question
The Government's inconsistent rules on travel restrictions and vaccine recognition are adding to public confusion. Additionally, there are reports of Conservative MPs turning off their apps to avoid quarantine. Does this not indicate a lack of control by the government?
Minister reply
No.
Question
Travellers from countries with lower COVID rates than the UK (such as the US and Canada) can travel to Europe but not the UK. Should we move away from country-based classifications towards individual traveller vaccination statuses?
Minister reply
We are working diligently on understanding the science regarding vaccine efficacy against different variants and transmissibility among vaccinated individuals.
Question
Families with young adults who turn 18 during the holiday season face travel restrictions due to vaccination requirements. Could these rules be relaxed, perhaps applying from September onwards, so that families can enjoy holidays together?
Minister reply
The Minister is willing to consider suggestions to refine the system and will look into relaxing rules for specific groups such as young adults.
Question
Other countries may follow Bulgaria in placing travel from the UK on a red list. What support can be offered to the beleaguered UK travel sector given this uncertainty?
Minister reply
We continue to engage with international partners to understand how best to enable travel between us and address such issues.
Question
Travel companies in his constituency are facing tough times. Will the Minister add weight to calls for ongoing sector-specific support from the Chancellor?
Minister reply
The success of the vaccine roll-out is enabling international travel reopening, and this is the best way to help all sectors including the travel industry.
Rachael Maskell
Lab Co-op
York Central
Question
Transport workers are at risk due to high infection rates. Will the Minister ensure that measures under Health and Safety laws and Employment Rights Act are taken to protect them, including mask-wearing and social distancing?
Minister reply
Employers must enforce existing health and safety laws. Detailed guidance for covid-safe travel is provided, with some transport providers requiring masks.
Ben Spencer
Con
Runnymede and Weybridge
Question
Fully vaccinated people can now travel to amber countries without quarantine but France has been given a new 'orange-red' status. Will the traffic light system remain three-pronged for certainty?
Minister reply
The red, amber, green system remains in place; a precautionary measure was taken with France due to variant concerns. Certainty will be reviewed at next assessment.
Clive Efford
Lab
Eltham and Chislehurst
Question
With infection rates high, how can it be responsible not to require mask-wearing on all forms of transport given people's close proximity during travel?
Minister reply
The Government encourages personal responsibility; masks are expected in crowded settings while acknowledging varied circumstances.
Question
I want to touch further on points raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone). Recently, I visited Blue Bay Travel, a business based in my constituency, and people there particularly highlighted the mismatch that is causing issues between the traffic light advice for some countries, which would allow people to come back into the UK, and Foreign Office travel advice, which prevents them from leaving in the first place. Will the Minister please look at what more can be done to better join up this advice, to make it easier for travel businesses and for those wishing to travel abroad?
Minister reply
I am very happy to assure my hon. Friend that I, like the Department for Transport more broadly, will continue to talk to our colleagues across government to see what more can be done. I have to point out again that the two issues are dealing with different aspects—almost two sides of the same problem. We are dealing with the risk of importing the virus, or variants of it, into this country. The Foreign Office is seeking to give advice to British citizens when they travel abroad; although we will obviously continue to talk to each other, they are dealing with fundamentally different things.
Question
There is already confusion over recent international travel announcements as well as an increase in the rates of covid. We all know that masks cut the risk of getting covid and passing it on to others, so leaving face coverings to personal responsibility is just a recipe for further confusion, conflict, chaos and, of course, more covid. It also leaves 3.5 million clinically vulnerable people frightened to travel. Should not wearing a mask just be compulsory on all modes of transport?
Minister reply
It is right that we allow transport providers to assess the situation on their own mode of transport and to make that a condition of carriage if required. Moreover, it is also right that we trust people to take the right decision for themselves and for those around them.
Question
It is great that international travel is now happening again, and I am absolutely clear that we must continue to do all we can for our aviation, travel, leisure and hospitality sectors. May I please draw the Minister’s attention to the high cost of covid testing? Our families returning from holidays are forking out lots of money for this, so may I ask him to consider the uniformity of the policy and also to get the costs down, please?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend raises a critically important point. We are working with industry and across Government to see how we can help with the cost of testing; the Government are aware of it. We seek to enable that information to be made available to consumers on the website, which shows the different providers, but he will have noticed that the cost of testing has been coming down over the past few weeks and months, and I am confident that, as we see more travel in a safe, sustainable way, the cost will come down even further.
Question
The Minister did not answer the question on support for the aviation sector and associated sectors, such as the travel industry and hospitality posed by my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands), so, here we go again. Has his Department lobbied the Treasury for additional funds to support jobs in these sectors, and, if so, what was the answer?
Minister reply
The hon. Lady will be aware that we estimate that the aviation sector itself will have benefited from approximately £7 billion-worth of support by September, as well as the other sectors, which have benefited from the cross-economy support schemes that the Government have put in place. The best way that we can assist all of those sectors is to unwrap international travel as soon as we can while protecting public health, because that is the best way to help them.
Question
Almost 70% of Ashfield residents have been double jabbed. Although that has given us back our domestic freedoms, does the Minister agree that another freedom that we need to get back is foreign travel, which will give our aviation industry a much-needed boost?
Minister reply
I am very keen to see foreign travel resume, because of the immense benefits that it brings to this country in individuals’ life experience, the jobs that it brings in, the money that comes into the Treasury, the families who need to be connected, and the businesses who rely on international travel. I am very keen to see all of that increase as much as we can. However, we must do so in a way that reassures the public that we are protecting public health.
Question
The Minister’s regulations require people wanting to travel abroad to have PCR tests. When will the Government publish an up-to-date and accurate list of suitable, recommended PCR test providers for travellers, and what will he do to protect travellers from those companies that charge a lot and then do not deliver timely results, thus ruining travel plans for families at the last minute?
Minister reply
The Department of Health and Social Care continually reviews the list of providers. It has a rolling programme, and it takes action if providers are not delivering what they have promised.
Question
Travel to the US is very important for businesses headquartered in my constituency. Several own major US subsidiaries, which they cannot adequately oversee—they cannot tour a factory, for instance, by Zoom—and many have major US investors whom they cannot update. Can the Minister assure me that he is doing everything he can to get a travel corridor in place with the US—I know that we have the taskforce—because it is essential that we can have travel going in that direction?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend gives a perfect example of the importance of travel: there are certain things we cannot do over Zoom and she is quite right to draw attention to that. Transatlantic travel is hugely important to the United States and to the United Kingdom for many reasons, and has obviously been greatly affected by the pandemic, which has kept families apart and made trade difficult. We want to restore travel with our closest ally as soon as we possibly can. My hon. Friend will know that the Prime Minister and President Biden made clear the importance of bringing about the return of safe travel as soon as possible, which is why the joint UK-US experts’ working group to which she referred has been formed, and work is well under way to deliver that goal as soon as possible.
Question
Significant concerns about conditions for people who return to the UK and in the quarantine hotels have been expressed by Members of this House and by the directors of public health for the local authorities around Heathrow airport. One cannot book a flight until the quarantine hotel is booked. My constituent had to wait for more than a week to receive vital HIV medication while he was waiting to enter the UK and then again while in the quarantine hotel. He contacted me and we were fobbed off by being told: “The hotels have on-site doctors”. He needed a specialist doctor to prescribe his essential medication, which he had to wait too long to receive. That is unacceptable and I worry how many other people’s lives and health are being put at risk due to such delays and the poor management of the quarantine hotels and arrival system. What steps is the Minister taking to prevent this from happening to others who arrive in the UK?
Minister reply
I am concerned to hear about the case raised by the hon. Member. If she would like to share it with me in writing, I will ensure that that complaint is sent to the right place and addressed. I am happy to take action on that individual case. More broadly, we of course continue, across Government, to ensure that the policies we have in place are not only accurate and required but carried out to the satisfaction of all involved. Circumstances have obviously been fast-moving. We are all committed to making sure that the policy is delivered and that quarantine hotels are managed appropriately.
Question
I am sorry to say that the further restrictions for France stretch both the credibility of the system and the patience of the travel industry. The whole industry—from regional airports, including Exeter airport, to travel agents in places such as Sidmouth—continues to watch as its reserves are dried up, Government support is reduced and its ability to trade is hampered to an extent beyond that of any other industry. Will my hon. Friend look again at bespoke support for the travel and aviation industry, to avoid further job losses affecting hundreds of thousands of people?
Minister reply
The travel industry and regional airports, particularly Exeter airport, have powerful voices in this place, not least that of my hon. Friend, who is exceptionally eloquent and powerful in making the case to me and others. I commit to remain in close contact with him and all in the sector so that we can best understand how we may be able to support them. As I have said, the best way to do that is to ensure that we are able to travel in a way that protects public health. None the less, we must enable travel.
Shadow Comment
Jim McMahon
Shadow Comment
The Government's travel rules have caused significant chaos and confusion, frustrating the public, travel industry, and Members of Parliament. The UK introduced passenger restrictions late compared to other countries, leading to a blunt intervention without financial support for aviation. When the traffic light system was launched, promised full data publication did not occur. Questions arise about the delay in adding India to the red list due to political reasons rather than public health concerns. Reports indicate that the beta variant's high rates are actually on Réunion Island, raising doubts about France’s exclusion from new travel arrangements. The lack of country-by-country assessment and inconsistency in rules for similar categories call for full data publication transparency. Concerns also exist over potential restrictions on Spain and Greece travellers like those imposed on France.
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