Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to learn from steps taken effectively by New Zealand and Australia and introduce stronger border controls alongside increased covid-19 restrictions to restrict the spread of the virus into the UK.

The UK already has some of the strongest safeguards against importing COVID-19 in the shape of mandatory 10-day quarantine for the vast majority of arrivals outside of those covered by travel corridors.

As the pandemic is continually evolving, we continue to work alongside global partners to learn lessons and implement new measures if and when needed.

Passengers arriving from all international destinations will be required to present a negative COVID-19 test result before entering the UK to help protect against rising infection rates and new strains of coronavirus circulating internationally.

The move is in addition to robust existing measures the Government is taking to reduce the risk of imported cases. Passengers arriving from countries not on the Government’s Travel Corridor list will still need to self-isolate for ten days regardless of their pre-departure test result, to provide robust protection.