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Scotland ‘jumped the gun’ on Greece quarantine, says Shapps

Transport secretary Grant Shapps says Scotland “jumped the gun” on imposing quarantine restrictions on arrivals from Greece.

Shapps, who on Thursday night tweeted that there would be no changes to self-isolation requirements on people returning to England, said different approaches from devolved governments had caused holidaymakers confusion.

Scotland and Wales have both now imposed 14 days of self-isolation on arrivals from Portugal. Scotland is also including Greece on its quarantine list, while Wales has added seven Greek islands, Zante from Tuesday night followed by six more on Thursday night.

Quarantine also applies to people arriving in Wales from Gibraltar and French Polynesia, and from French Polynesia to Scotland – which is keeping Gibraltar under close observation.

Restrictions come into place for arrivals in Scotland at 4am Saturday, and did so for Wales at 4am this morning (Friday).

Passengers returning from those destinations to England do not face any restrictions at present.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Shapps suggested there would be no further changes to England’s ‘safe lists’ this week.

“The Scots decided, without using the Joint Biosecurity Centre data for this particular decision, that the people from Greece would be excluded and sort of jumped the gun on that. It is their right to do it but it doesn’t make the overall message any clearer.”

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