Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the evidential basis is for his Department's decision to assign countries to the red, amber or green travel list for covid-19.

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 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
• Variant of Concern transmission risk

A summary of the JBC methodology, alongside key data that supports decisions on the traffic light system is published on gov.uk.

The data for all countries be kept under regular review and the Government will not hesitate to take action where a country’s epidemiological picture changes.