News

Quarantine on arrivals to begin in early June, says transport secretary

The transport secretary has told the House of Commons that the UK will introduce quarantine measures from early June.

Answering questions from fellow MPs, Grant Shapps said the 14-day isolation measures would be initially introduced across the board for arrivals from air, sea and rail.

But he added that the scheme may later be altered to allow people from countries with Covid-19 infection rates below one to enter, using ‘air bridges’.

“The final details of the quarantine scheme will be released soon and come in early next month,” he said.

“We should consider further improvements, for example things like ‘air bridges’ enabling people from countries that have themselves achieved lower levels of coronavirus infection to come to the country, so there are active discussions that will go beyond what will initially be a blanket situation.”

Shapps also responded to a question on protecting jobs in the aviation sector, telling the house that 43,500 airline staff and 2,600 airport workers were on furlough.

He said he was “acutely aware” of the proposed job losses” in the sector and added that work was “very much ongoing” an additional treasury scheme, called the Birch Process to help the aviation sector.

Podcast: Summer dreams ripped at the seams?

Share article

View Comments

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.