The chairman of the Transport Select Committee has called on the health secretary to provide clarity on when current travel restrictions might end and why.
Huw Merriman MP posted a letter he has sent to Sajid Javid on Twitter, in which he points out: “Due to a lack of financial support accompanying the new measures, those working in the travel sector, and those relying upon it, are keen to understand the reasoning behind, and the likely duration of, these measures.”
In response to the Omicron variant, from November 30 all arrivals into the UK have been asked to take a PCR test and isolate until their results and, from December 7, all those due to travel to the UK have been mandated to take a pre-departure test before travel. Eleven countries have been added to the UK government’s red list.
Merriman asked Javid to confirm:
- When you expect such measures to end;
- If the end date is predicated on the level of community transmission, what requirements would need to be met to enable the measures to end, and;
- If the end date is predicated on other requirements, what those requirements might be.
Addressing the rationale of the restrictions, he asked for confirmation of:
- Whether the government plans to publish the evidence base underpinning its decision to introduce new international travel requirements;
- What benefit the pre-departure test provides, over and above the test on arrival, and;
- Why pre-departure testing was reintroduced when the secretary of state for transport [Grant Shapps] had ruled out such a reintroduction
Merriman’s questions come ahead of the Transport Select Committee’s oral evidence session on December 15, at which both a representative from the UK Health Security Agency, and the aviation minister, are due to speak.
Javid told the House of Commons this week: “Soon, in the days and weeks that lie ahead, if, as I think is likely, we see many more infections and this variant becomes the dominant variant, there will be less need to have any kind of travel restrictions at all.”