Travel Restrictions: Bangladesh

(asked on 18th August 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the methodology that led to the Government's decision to keep Bangladesh on its red list for international covid-19 travel restrictions, as announced on 5 August 2021.


Answered by
Robert Courts Portrait
Robert Courts
Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
This question was answered on 7th September 2021

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 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
  • Variant of Concern transmission risk

A summary of the JBC methodology is published on gov.uk, alongside key data that supports Ministers' decisions.

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

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