Government Response

The Government responded to this petition on Tuesday 20th July 2021

It was always the intention of the government to introduce easements on restrictions, which we are doing on 19th July, but these could only be introduced once most of the UK were fully vaccinated.

We recognise the impact that restrictions and this pandemic have had on many people. We have made enormous progress this past year in tackling the pandemic across Britain. That progress has been hard won and it is important that we do not risk undermining it now.

In 2019, UK residents took over 93 million trips abroad, for business, leisure and to visit friends and family. International travel is vital. It connects families who have been kept apart, boosts businesses and underpins the UK economy. It is absolutely essential that any steps we take now, lay the groundwork for a sustainable return to travel.

To protect the nation from the spread of Covid-19 particularly any new variants of concern, the government has put in place proportionate measures, informed by the latest scientific data and public health advice from a world-leading range of experts.

The purpose of our travel measures is to protect public health and the vaccine rollout as our top priority, while ensuring that our route out of the international travel restrictions is sustainable.

The traffic light system categorises countries based on risk to protect public health and the vaccine rollout from variants of COVID-19. The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) produces risk assessments of countries and territories. Decisions on Red, Amber or Green List assignment and associated border measures are taken by Ministers, who take into account the JBC risk assessments, alongside wider public health factors. Vaccination status is considered in the risk assessment, but the JBC is looking for the outcome of vaccination programmes, i.e. reduced levels of infection including variants of concern.

The next step to the reopening of international travel will happen on the 19th of July where international, arrivals who have been fully vaccinated with an National Health Service administered vaccine in the UK (plus 14 days), or are on a formally approved UK vaccine clinical trial, returning to England from ‘amber list’ countries will no longer need to quarantine – passengers will need to provide proof of their vaccination status to carriers in advance of travel. Fully vaccinated amber arrivals returning from amber countries will still be required to complete a pre-departure test before arrival into England, alongside a PCR test on or before day 2 after arrival. They will not have to take a day 8 test or quarantine. Any positive results will be genomically sequenced to continue to manage the risk from importing variants.

This means that fully vaccinated travellers, the requirements for green and amber list countries are the same.

The recommendation for people not to travel to ‘amber list’ countries will also be removed from 19th July. That means that people will be able to travel to ‘amber list’ countries for leisure and business and to see family.
We are working to extend our approach to vaccinated passengers from important markets and holiday destinations later this summer, such as the United States and the European Union.

Until implementation passengers must continue to abide by quarantine rules when returning to the UK from an amber list country.

All arrivals from ‘red list’ countries weather fully vaccinated or not are expected to continue with the 10 days quarantine in a managed quarantine facility.

Recognising the strong strategic rationale and success of the vaccine programme, we will continue to look into the role of vaccinations in shaping a different set of health and testing measures for inbound travel at the next review stages of the traffic light system.

Department of Health and Social Care