Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will set out the criteria used in respect of the covid-19 travel rules in deciding that (a) Pakistan should remain on the red list and (b) India, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates should move from the red to the amber list, announced on 5 August 2021.

Decisions on Red, Amber or Green List assignment and associated border measures are taken by Ministers, who take into account Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) risk assessments of countries and territories, alongside wider public health factors. Key factors in the JBC risk assessment of each country and territory include genomic surveillance capability, COVID-19 transmission risk and variant of concern transmission risk. A summary of the JBC methodology is published on gov.uk, alongside key data that supports Ministers' decisions.

These are intended to be temporary measures and the government keeps data for countries and territories under regular review.