Travellers who are in quarantine hotels will be allowed to leave before their 10 days are up, after the government took all 11 countries off its red list.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps confirmed the red list move on Tuesday (December 14) but said current testing requirements would remain in place at least until a review in the first week of January.
He told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday that Sajid Javid, health secretary, will provide “more detail” later today about when those who are still in the hotels can leave.
Travel journalist Simon Calder tweeted that he was outside the Sofitel quarantine hotel at Gatwick, where “there’s been a stream of departures even though officials are saying they must hang around until lunchtime”.
He said on Twitter: “Red list ended 4am, but incarceration continues for inmates. They have been asked to stay until lunchtime. Security officer tells me: ‘I’ve had nine walk out on me so far. They face a £10,000 fine but the police aren’t interested.’”
Passengers who booked a quarantine hotel for after the red list change – from 4am on Wednesday (December 15) – are entitled to a full refund.
Cabinet minister Stephen Barclay, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told the Commons on Tuesday evening that those who are released early are required to follow the relevant rules as if they have arrived from a non-red list country.
“We will look to implement this as quickly as possible and we’ll set out further specific guidance for affected individuals imminently,” he said.
However, anyone who has tested positive will need to continue to stay in managed quarantine.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s tourism minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, welcomed the UK government’s announcement that the country is being removed from England’s red list.
The removal of South Africa and 10 other African countries from the red list means that hotel quarantine is no longer required for those returning to the UK from those destinations after 4am on December 15.
Sisulu described the UK government decision as “a step in the right direction for South Africa’s tourism sector”.
“When South Africa was added to the red list last month, the implementation of hotel quarantine instead of at-home quarantine was a huge deterrent for Brits who were considering travelling to South Africa at a time when our tourism industry was just beginning to recover,” she said.
“The Omicron variant is something that we continue to take very seriously, and our scientists are closely monitoring its trajectory to contain the virus and ensure the appropriate robust safety measures are in place.
“South African borders remain open, and our government and tourism industry have been working extremely hard to implement safety regulations to ensure that we are ready for all inbound visitors.
“We appreciate all the hard work and dedication of all our tourism stakeholders. Our lobbying efforts are yielding results.
“We hope to welcome British travellers again very soon.”
• Figures from aviation analytics firm Cirium show that 41 flights arrived in the UK from red list countries between December 7 and December 13.
Of these, 21 were from Nigeria, equating to 6,565 seats, and 20 were from South Africa, equating to 5,400 seats
No flights were recorded from Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia or Zimbabwe – the other countries on the red list.
In total, there were 7,310 flights into the UK during that period, which equates to 1.5 million seats.