Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of whether (a) Madeira and (b) other similar island locations pose a lower covid-19 risk than other locations on the UK's red list of countries for which hotel quarantine is required.

The government introduced a travel ban for Madeira, along with mainland Portugal and the Azores, on 15 January 2021 and since 15 February individuals who have been in Madeira in the 10 days before they arrive in the UK must quarantine in a government approved hotel.

The decision to introduce additional measures for arrivals who have been in Madeira and other countries on the red list in the 10 days before they arrive in the UK, is in direct response to scientific and medical data, which represents an increased risk to UK public health and an increased risk of community transmission of the new COVID-19 variants identified in other countries.

The government has made it consistently clear that it will take decisive action to contain the virus, including imposing travel bans if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country without self-isolating becomes too high.