Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the 14-day at-home quarantine for passengers arriving at UK airports compared with testing passengers for covid-19 upon arrival at those airports.

The scientific advice shows that when domestic transmission is high, imported cases represent a small amount of the overall total and they make no significant difference to the epidemic. However, this can change when the domestic transmission/rate of infection is low, and people are arriving from countries with a higher rate of infection.

Now that domestic transmission within the UK is coming under control, and other countries begin to lift lockdown measures, it is the right time to prepare new measures at the border, including self-isolation.

The Government and SAGE do not currently advise virus testing for asymptomatic people, either domestically or at the border, apart from in certain settings, such as hospitals, care homes, and prisons.