Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to review the COVID-19 travel red list; and what factors they will take into account when conducting that review.

Decisions on COVID-19 travel red list assignment are taken by Ministers. They are informed by evidence, including a UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) risk assessment, alongside wider public health factors. The UKHSA risk assessments cover a range of information and take place every three weeks. The last UKHSA risk assessment of countries was carried out on 13 December 2021, with the next assessment made before 3 January 2022.

Risk assessments take into account the assessment of sequencing capability of countries, available surveillance, epidemiology in country, recent genome sequencing data, evidence of in-country community transmission of COVID-19 variants, evidence of exportation of new variants to the United Kingdom or other countries and travel connectivity with the UK and other countries.