Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to mitigate the disruption caused by the closing of travel corridors; and what steps his Department is taking to avoid quarantine measures in the future.

We have consistently advised travellers that travel corridors can, and do change quickly.

As the Secretary of State set out in the House on 07/09/2020 – there is a tension between bringing in to force regulations at pace which are designed to protect the health of the public and allowing travellers and operators the chance to consider incoming regulations. Our current approach, a Thursday announcement followed by a Saturday coming in to force date tries to straddle those concerns. It is also an approach that has been agreed across the four nations, and takes on board operational considerations at the border. However, we reserve the right to bring regulations in to force quicker if their strong public health rationale to do so.

While it is right that we continue to ask individuals to self-isolate if they have visited a high risk destination, we are working actively on the practicalities of using testing to release people from self-isolation in fewer than 14 days.