Negative Covid test required for passengers arriving in England or Scotland

Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Transport, announced the introduction of a new requirement for anyone travelling to England. 

He said,

If you are coming here from anywhere, whether you’re a Brit or a foreign national, then you’ll need to take a Covid test up to 72 hours before you come here.

If the pre-journey Covid test is positive, passengers will be required to quarantine, under the laws of the country from which they are travelling, until they recover.

Passengers will still be required to quarantine for ten days (which can be reduced using the test to release programme) on arrival in England. The quarantine rule does not apply when travelling from countries on the Government’s Safe Travel Corridor list.

UPDATE

The requirement for inbound passengers to show a negative Covid test before travelling to England, from a foreign country has been pushed back to 04:00 on Monday, 18 January.