Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether British citizens residing overseas who have been double vaccinated abroad and want to return to the UK from amber list countries need to quarantine after returning from those countries; and what steps he is taking to alleviate the need for those people to have to enter quarantine on arrival in the UK.

Currently, British citizens returning to England must have received the full course of COVID-19 vaccination under any of the following programmes in order to qualify for ‘amber list’ countries relaxed inbound travel measures and need not quarantine:

- A United Kingdom vaccination programme approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA);

- A UK vaccine programme overseas, approved by the MHRA;

- A vaccination programme authorised by the European Medicines Agency or Swissmedic;

- A vaccination programme authorised by the Food and Drug Administration and must also be resident in the United States of America.

From 4 October, the ‘red’, ‘amber’ and ‘green’ traffic light system will be replaced with a single ‘red list’ of countries and the rest of the world. The rules for travel from countries and territories not on the ‘red list’ will depend on the international arrivals’ vaccination status. Fully vaccinated British citizens residing in seventeen countries and territories will be able to travel to the UK without the need to quarantine.