Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department makes of the transparency of other nations' (a) covid-19 medical case rate reporting and (b) media freedom to discuss the covid-19 pandemic prior to making decisions on potential inclusion of those countries on the UK's list of covid-19 acute risk countries for international travel during the covid-19 pandemic.

The decision to include countries on the ‘red list’ is made by the Government, informed by the latest scientific data and public health advice from a world-leading range of experts. Data includes evidence of variants of concern, epidemiology, imported cases and traveller volumes. The list of red list countries is kept consistently under review.

The Government is committed to the open sharing of the scientific advice guiding our response to COVID-19 where possible. Transparency and confidence of reported data by other countries is considered as part of the assessment process. We continue to engage and encourage other countries to share best practice and data.