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Dave

Traffic light system

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From 4am Monday 4 October 2021, the rules for international travel to England changed from the red, amber, green traffic light system to a single red list of countries and simplified travel measures for arrivals from the rest of the world. The red list of countries was updated on Sunday, 28 November 2021 and, on 14 December 2021, all eleven countries on the list were removed, with effect from 4am, Wednesday 15 December 2021.

What you must do when you arrive in England

*If you are fully vaccinated*

This is what you need to do if you qualify under the fully vaccinated rules for travel to England.

Before you travel to England

Before you travel to England you must:

  • Book and pay for a Covid-19 test – to be taken before the end of day 2 in England. You cannot use an NHS test for this. You must use a private test provider.
  • complete a passenger locator form – to be completed in the 48 hours before you arrive in England. You will need to enter your COVID-19 test booking reference number on your passenger locator form. If you will be in England for less than 2 days you still need to book and pay for a day 2 COVID-19 test.

You must self-isolate in your home or the place you are staying until you receive your test result.

When you arrive in England

After you arrive in England you must take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2. The day you arrive is day 0. This is the lateral flow or PCR test that you booked before travel. If the test result is negative, you do not need to self-isolate.

  • If you took a lateral flow test and the result is positive, you must take a free PCR test to confirm the result. You must self-isolate until you get the result.
  • If you took a lateral flow test and the result is unclear, you must self-isolate for 10 full days. The day you took the test is day 0.
  • If you took a PCR test and the result is positive, you must self-isolate for 10 full days. The day of the test is day 0.
  • If you took a PCR test and the result is unclear, you must self-isolate for 10 full days. The day you took the test is day 0.
  • If your PCR test results are delayed, you must self-isolate until your test result is known or until day 14 after arrival, whichever is sooner. You can choose to take another private test. If the result is negative, you can stop self-isolating.

*If you are not fully vaccinated*

After you arrive in England you must:

  • quarantine at home or in the place you are staying for 10 full days
  • take your Covid-19 PCR tests – you must book these tests before you travel

You must take the first test on or before day 2 and the second test on or after day 8. The day you arrive is day 0.

If you are in England for less than 10 days, you need to quarantine for the time you are here. You need to book day 2 and day 8 PCR tests. You only need to take the tests if you are still in England on those days.

If the test result is positive

If your day 2 test is positive, you must self-isolate for 10 full days. The day you took the test is day 0.

You do not need to take the day 8 test if your day 2 test is positive. If your day 2 test is negative, you must take your day 8 test.

If your day 8 test is positive, you must self-isolate for 10 full days. The day you took the day 8 test is day 0.

If the test result is negative

If your day 2 test is negative, you must continue to quarantine.

You must take your day 8 test on or after day 8.

If your day 8 test is negative, you can stop quarantine on whichever is later:

  • day 10 – day 0 is the day you arrived in England
  • when you receive the day 8 test result

You must follow these rules if you:

  • do not qualify under the fully vaccinated rules
  • are partially vaccinated
  • are not vaccinated

Before you travel to England you must:

  • take a pre-departure COVID-19 test – to be taken in the 3 days before you travel to England
  • book and pay for day 2 and day 8 COVID-19 tests – to be taken after arrival in England
  • complete your passenger locator form – any time in the 48 hours before you arrive in England

After you arrive in England you must:

  • quarantine at home or in the place you are staying for 10 days
  • take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2 and on or after day 8

You may be able to end quarantine early if you pay for a private Covid-19 test through the Test to Release scheme.

Travel from red countries

There are different rules if you have been in a red list country in the 10 days before you arrive in England.

Before you travel to England – red list rules

Before you travel to England you must:

  • take a Covid-19 test – you must take the test in the 3 days before you travel to England
  • book a quarantine hotel package, including 2 COVID-19 tests
  • complete a passenger locator form

You must do this even if you are fully vaccinated.

Read more about taking a COVID-19 test before you travel to England.

When you arrive in England – red list rules

When you arrive in England you must quarantine in a managed hotel, and take 2 COVID-19 tests.

You must do this even if you are fully vaccinated.

If you have been in a country or territory on the red list in the last 10 days, you will only be allowed to enter the UK if you are a British or Irish national or you have residence rights in the UK.

The Red list of countries
Angola – until 4am Wednesday 15 December
Botswana – UNTIL 4AM WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER
Eswatini – UNTIL 4AM WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER
Lesotho – UNTIL 4AM WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER
MALAWI – UNTIL 4AM WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER
Mozambique – UNTIL 4AM WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER
Namibia – UNTIL 4AM WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER
NIGERIA – UNTIL 4AM WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER
South Africa – UNTIL 4AM WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER
Zambia – UNTIL 4AM WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER
Zimbabwe – UNTIL 4AM WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER

We advise checking with gov.uk for the latest, most up to date information on the restrictions and make up of the red list.

The traffic light system was put in place in order to facilitate non-essential travel in the Summer months of 2020. The restrictions do not necessarily impact business travellers. For further clarification and details, please contact your GTM Account Manager.

Dave

Global Travel Taskforce sets out framework

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A framework to chart the safe return of international travel has been set out today (9 April 2021) by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

A traffic light system, which will categorise countries based on risk alongside the restrictions required for travel, will be set up to protect the public and the vaccine rollout from international Covid-19 variants.

Key factors in the assessment will include:

  • the percentage of their population that have been vaccinated
  • the rate of infection
  • the prevalence of variants of concern
  • the country’s access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing

The report, produced by the Global Travel Taskforce, shows how international leisure travel could resume from 17 May 2021 at the earliest, in an accessible and affordable way. This includes the removal of the permission to travel form – meaning passengers would no longer need to prove they have a valid reason to leave the country.

The risks posed by Covid-19 variants remain significant, and restrictions for inbound passengers, such as 10-day managed quarantine, home quarantine and stringent testing will remain in place, but will apply to people differently depending on whether the destination visited is categorised as ‘green’, ‘amber’ or ‘red’.

  • Green: arrivals will need to take a pre-departure test as well as a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on or before day 2 of their arrival back into the UK – but will not need to quarantine on return (unless they receive a positive result) or take any additional tests, halving the cost of tests on their return from holiday
  • Amber: arrivals will need to quarantine for a period of 10 days and take a pre-departure test, and a PCR test on day 2 and day 8 with the option for Test to Release on day 5 to end self-isolation early
  • Red: arrivals will be subject to restrictions currently in place for ‘red list’ countries which include a 10-day stay in a managed quarantine hotel, pre-departure testing and PCR testing on days 2 and 8

Testing remains an essential part of protecting public health as restrictions begin to ease, with all arrivals who are not exempt required to book a pre-departure, day 2 and day 8 test before travelling.

Arrivals travelling from ‘red list’ countries should book a quarantine package before departure, and arrivals from ‘amber’ and ‘green’ countries will be required to book test packages before travelling from one of the government’s approved list of providers.

Testing post-arrival remains an important tool in wider measures to manage the risk of imported cases allowing the monitoring of positive tests and ensure people isolate, as well as identifing and genomically sequencing variants of concern.

It is too early to predict which countries will be on which list over the summer, and the government continues to consider a range of factors to inform the restrictions placed on them. The government has committed to set out by early May which countries will fall into each category, as well as confirming whether international leisure travel can resume from 17 May 2021.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:

International travel is vital – it boosts businesses and underpins the UK economy – but more than that, it brings people together, connects families who have been kept apart, and allows us to explore new horizons.

The framework announced today will help allow us to reopen travel safely and sustainably, ensure we protect our hard-won achievements on the vaccine roll out, and offer peace of mind to both passengers and industry as we begin to take trips abroad once again.

The UK will also play a leading role in the development of international standards around a digital travel certification system. The Department for Transport (DfT) is working across government to consider the role certification could play in facilitating outbound travel, for those countries which have systems in place. Work also continues to develop a system that would facilitate travel certification for inbound international travel.

To give passengers more certainty when travelling, a ‘green watchlist’ will be introduced to help identify countries most at risk of moving from ‘green’ to ‘amber’. The watchlist will provide greater assurance for those who wish to travel abroad.

While the watchlist will warn travellers of potential changes in advance, the government will not hesitate to act immediately should the data show that countries risk ratings have changed.

The allocation of countries will be kept under review and respond to emerging evidence, with a particular focus on variants of concern.

Restrictions will be formally reviewed on 28 June 2021 to take account of the domestic and international health picture, and to see whether current measures could be rolled back. Further formal reviews will take place at checkpoints no later than 31 July and 1 October 2021.

To ensure the UK’s borders remain safe and efficient when passenger flows increase, the government has also announced plans to digitise the passenger locator form, integrating it into the UK border system and enabling checks to take place at e-gates ‘by autumn 2021’.

To further boost consumer confidence, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will be given additional enforcement powers to act on airlines that have breached consumer rights, with a dedicated consultation on how to use additional tools to enforce consumer rights expected later this year.

Global Travel Management will continue to provide updates to customers via this website, the GTM Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages and regular email notifications.

You can download the Global Travel Taskforce report here and access the appendix to the report here.