Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what criteria he uses to determine how he reviews the traffic light system, indicating which countries are safe to travel to without the need for quarantining on return.

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.  Key factors in the JBC risk assessment of each country include genomic surveillance capability, COVID-19 transmission risk and Variant of Concern transmission risk. A summary of the JBC methodology has been published on GOV.UK, alongside key data that supports ministers’ decisions.

The countries on the green list are those that present the lowest risk to the UK. Arrivals from green list countries must take a pre-departure test as well as a PCR test on or before day 2 of their arrival in England but will not need to quarantine. Countries on the green list have low case rates, low positivity, good surveillance and low risk from variants of concern.