Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the sixth recommendations from the tenth meeting on covid-19 of the World Health Organisation's International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee on international traffic bans; and if he will make it his policy to only introduce such bans in extreme circumstances and when data show is it proportionate to do so.

This is a matter for the Department of Health and Social Care.

As part of our long-term plan on living with COVID-19, the Government is developing a contingency toolbox of options to be used at the border, including a more agile toolbox tailored depending on the nature and source of the threat, and deployed only in extreme circumstances where measures are proportionate and effective in slowing ingress to avert pressure on public services such as the NHS. We remain committed to reopening travel in a safe and sustainable way and to provide certainty for travellers in the future.