Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria his Department plans to use to assess whether travel restrictions to a particular country are necessary to help prevent the spread of b.1.1.529 variant of covid-19.

To halt the spread of b.1.1.529 variant of COVID-19 (Omicron), we added countries to the red list where significant numbers of this variant have been identified.

Decisions on red list country assignment and associated border measures will continue to be discussed alongside the UK Health Security Agency risk assessments on wider public health factors.

From 15 December, the Government agreed to remove all 11 remaining countries and territories from England’s red list - with community transmission of Omicron in the United Kingdom and spread widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad.