Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the full criteria for countries being (a) placed on and b) taken off the covid-19 travel red list.

Decisions to place countries on the ‘red list’ are taken by Ministers, informed by evidence including the Joint Biosecurity Centre’s (JBC) analysis as well as other relevant information about the risk of the spread of variants and other wider public health factors. We are unable to provide the information requested as it relates to the on-going development of Government policy.

A summary of the JBC’s methodology is published alongside key summary data that supports Ministers' decisions, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-risk-assessment-methodology-to-inform-international-travel-traffic-light-system/risk-assessment-methodology-to-inform-international-travel-traffic-light-system