Ministers weigh up factors affecting the economy, diplomacy and the supply chain – as well as public health – when making decisions about travel restrictions, MPs have been told.
Robert Courts, aviation minister, said decisions are taken by the Covid O cabinet sub-committee, which considers a paper that draws upon several sources, such as the UK Health Security Agency and other key government departments.
He told MPs the committee considers factors such as diplomatic issues, supply chain concerns and economic impacts.
“There will have been a number of different factors taken into account,” he told the transport select committee on Wednesday (December 16).
“It is not a tick-box exercise, there are wider implications.”
He was responding to MPs’ questions about the decision-making process as they did not know the reasoning for some rules, such as France going on to the ‘amber-plus’ list while other countries had higher rates of the Delta variant, and decisions about Pakistan and India moving onto the red list.
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Committee chair Huw Merriman asked why new testing restrictions remain when rates of infection for the Omicron variant in the UK are doubling in less than two days.
Courts said the rules are needed to tackling further “seeding” of the variant while scientists are learning about Omicron, adding: “It is buying us time. If we slow down the infection rate it buys time to get people vaccinated.
“Once the variant is in the community, we cannot stop it but it does not mean no restrictions.”
Ben Bradshaw MP said it was the first time he had heard about the committee process and had thought the decisions were made on a public health basis.
He speculated whether a “tetchy relationship” with the French prime minister or a proposed trade trip to India would influence considerations.
“Do you see how this completely destroys the credibility and public confidence in the system?” he asked Courts.
The minister said key departments would make their views known, such as the Treasury and Foreign Office, but added: “Underlying and tying everything together is public health; it is the golden thread that ties through all of this.”
He insisted “ministers decide, advisors advise”.
Earlier in the session, Dr Jenny Harries, UK Health Security Agency chief executive, said her agency provides evidence and risk assessments to ministers.
“It is still for the ministers to decide what the interventions are,” she told MPs.
Merriman asked: “Are you in the room they make these decisions?”
She replied that a representative of the UKHSA is usually present to give information if needed, such as to confirm a statistic or evidence.
Dr Harries said the testing rules were needed as a new variant could “pop up” at any time and PCRs tests allow cases to be genomically sequenced.
She said Omicron is “probably the most significant threat we’ve had since the start of the pandemic”.
Bradshaw said the transport secretary Grant Shapps and health secretary Sajid Javid had both told him the tests were “pointless”.
Courts said the testing requirements will be reviewed in January, adding: “I am absolutely aware of the impact that this will have on all parts of the travel industry No decision like this is taken lightly.”
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