England’s Quarantine Scrapped For Arrivals From 50 ‘Low Risk’ Countries

People arriving in England from more than 50 countries including France, Spain, Germany and Italy will no longer need to quarantine from 10 July, the Department for Transport has confirmed.

A full list of exempt countries posing “a reduced risk” from coronavirus will be published later.

Most travellers to the UK currently have to self-isolate for two weeks.

Scotland and Wales are yet to decide whether to ease travel restrictions and described the changes as “shambolic”.

Quarantine regulations also remain in place in Northern Ireland for people arriving from outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

England’s quarantine restrictions only came into force in early June, in a bid to stop coronavirus entering the country at a time when UK infections were falling.

The new exemptions mean people arriving from selected countries will be able to enter England without needing to self-isolate, unless they have been in or travelled through nonexempt countries in the preceding 14 days.

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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said finalising the list of countries had been delayed - after scrapping the quarantine was announced last week - in the hope that the four UK nations could reach a joint decision.

He said there was “still an opportunity” for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to co-ordinate and therefore make the changes more simple.

But Scottish ministers have complained of being pushed to make decisions too quickly. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “We can’t allow ourselves to be dragged along in the wake of another government’s - to be quite frank about it - shambolic decision-making process.”

First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford agreed the UK government’s approach had been “utterly shambolic”.

However, he added it was likely the Welsh government would impose the same measures as in England, provided the chief medical officer for Wales gave approval.

Mr Shapps told the BBC countries on the list would be labelled as either amber or green, in line with a trafficlight system based on their prevalence of coronavirus:

“Green” countries, such as New Zealand, have “very low” levels of coronavirus and will therefore have restrictions for UK arrivals

“Amber” countries - including France, Germany, Italy and Spain will have “reciprocal arrangements” in place, meaning travellers from the UK will not have to quarantine on arrival

Restrictions will remain in place for “red” countries, including the US

Mr Shapps said Greece would not be on the amber list to begin with, because it was currently not allowing flights from the UK.

Countries that will be either on the green or amber list include some of the UK’s overseas territories such as Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, Mr Shapps said, as well as smaller states such as the Vatican.

Ministers have been under pressure to ease quarantine measures because of the impact on the travel industry.

The Department for Transport said a risk assessment had been conducted considering factors such as the prevalence of the virus, the numbers of new cases and potential trajectory of the disease in each country.