Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the thresholds are for (a) vaccination rates and (b) infection rates when assigning countries to red, amber and green lists for international travel.
Answered by Robert Courts
Decisions on red, amber and green list countries are taken by Ministers, who take into account risk assessments produced by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), alongside wider public health factors. Risk assessments are based on factors such as the level of community transmission of variants of concern or variant under investigation, levels of testing, genomic sequencing and reporting. Details of the in-country and territory vaccination profile are included as contextual information in the assessment.
A summary of the JBC methodology has been published on GOV.UK, alongside key data that supports ministers’ decisions.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, by what criteria countries are assigned to the red, amber and green lists for international travel.
Answered by Robert Courts
Decisions on red, amber and green list countries are taken by Ministers, who take into account risk assessments produced by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), alongside wider public health factors. Risk assessments are based on factors such as the level of community transmission of variants of concern or variant under investigation, levels of testing, genomic sequencing and reporting. Details of the in-country and territory vaccination profile are included as contextual information in the assessment.
A summary of the JBC methodology has been published on GOV.UK, alongside key data that supports ministers’ decisions.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Government is taking steps ahead of the UK’s Presidency of the G7 in summer 2021 to ensure (a) the safe reopening of borders and (b) that the restart of international aviation is a priority of the G7.
Answered by Robert Courts
The Secretary of State for Transport met with G7 Transport Leaders on 5 May to begin setting out a strategy for the safe reopening of international travel.
This will focus on the need for a coordinated and sustainable reopening of travel through a number of aligned international measures including best practice for sharing scientific data and promoting coordination on universally recognised travel certificates.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with his US counterparts on resuming trans-Atlantic travel at pre-covid-19 pandemic levels as the covid-19 vaccine roll-out continues.
Answered by Robert Courts
As set out in the Global Travel Taskforce recommendations, we are engaging bilaterally with international partners to explore how we can open international travel safely, including the potential piloting of digital and non-digital COVID-19 certification. We continue to work with a range of international partners to look at the technology and evidence as it emerges, assessing if it could be applicable to international travel in the future.
These are diplomatically sensitive discussions, and we cannot comment further at this stage. However, the Department for Transport, with colleagues from across UK Government, is now working at all levels to continue dialogue with the US on the specifics of our future travel arrangements.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will remodel the Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme to allow ground handlers to use the grant for other fixed costs as well as business rates relief so that the package equally supports all parts of the aviation supply chain.
Answered by Robert Courts
Payments are not limited to use on business rates cost only.
The Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme (AGOSS) opened for applications on 29 January to provide support for eligible commercial airports and ground handlers in England. It will provide support up to the equivalent of their business rates liabilities in the 2020/21 financial year, subject to certain conditions and a cap per claimant of £8m.
Grant payments made to successful applicants can be applied toward costs which are essential to enable the operation of a commercial airport or ground handling operations and falls within the list of eligible expenditure.