UK travel restrictions: what went wrong?

‘As international travel restarted in the summer of 2021, passengers were subjected to a traffic light system that was opaque, ambiguous and inconsistent’ – Transport Select Committee. By Simon Calder

Arrivals at Heathrow Terminal 5 (PA)

Disproportionate, unscientific and ineffective: that is the damning assessment of the UK government’s Covid travel restrictions by the Transport Select Committee.

So what went wrong, and could it happen again? These are the key questions and answers.

When did the UK first introduce Covid travel restrictions?

Some measures specifically targeted to arrivals from China, Japan and Italy were introduced in late January and February 2020. But all coronavirus-related restrictions were removed in mid-March.

As the initial wave of Covid-19 began to subside across Europe in June 2020, the UK imposed a two-week mandatory quarantine for all arrivals to the UK, except from Ireland.

The following month the self-isolation requirement was lifted for travellers returning from some key destinations, including the most popular country for British holidaymakers: Spain.

But just 15 days later, quarantine was reimposed at a few hours’ notice, requiring all returning travellers (including the transport secretary, Grant Shapps) to go into two weeks’ self-isolation.

What happened next?

Nations were abruptly moved on and off the quarantine list, with Portugal allowed a brief couple of weeks in the sun in late summer.

Through the autumn, the travel industry lobbied for testing to be introduced to ease quarantine rules, but both the prime minister and the transport secretary insisted Covid tests were ineffective.

By the end of the second lockdown in December 2020, the only location to which British travellers could venture without restrictions in either direction was Gibraltar.

At the start of 2021, a 19-week outright ban on international leisure travel from the UK was imposed – with fines for anyone who even entered an airport or ferry port without an exemption to travel.

At the same time the prime minister told The Independent: that testing would be introduced to “prevent the virus being readmitted”.

Senior Labour figures, as well as the Scottish and Welsh first ministers, Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford, demanded even tougher measures.

When did hotel quarantine begin?

In February 2021. The requirement for travellers to pay up to £2,285 for 10 nights in an airport hotel remained in place for a constantly shifting population of countries, sometime numbering over 50, until December 2021.

Poor old Portugal was a member of the opening cohort, because of its connections with Brazil, where a “variant of concern” had been identified.

Remind me about the “traffic lights”?

When the international travel ban was lifted on 17 May, nations were classified red (requiring hotel quarantine), amber (self-isolation at home) and green (no quarantine). The only major holiday destination on the government’s “green list” was Portugal – which was then quickly removed, prompting an airlift to get travellers out before the deadline.

Every three weeks, Grant Shapps presided over another round of what became known as quarantine bingo.

Quarantine was removed for vaccinated arrivals from the large number of nations on the amber list in July, just before the main summer holidays for England and Wales.

But at short notice France – the second-most popular nation for British holidaymakers – was suddenly placed in a category of its own, christened “amber plus”, just ahead of the height of the tourist season.

Mandatory self-isolation was applied because of concerns about the Beta variant on the island of Réunion, 6,000 miles away – though arrivals from the Indian Ocean isle were not obliged to quarantine.

How did the rest of 2021 go?

As the summer wore on, the traffic light system became increasingly ridiculous – with one plane carrying holidaymakers returning from suddenly red-listed Montenegro touching down at Gatwick two minutes before the deadline.

By October 2021, restrictions for vaccinated travellers were eased – but in November and December, in response to the spread of the Omicron variant, the UK brought in the toughest, most expensive rules of any European nation.

Even vaccinated and boosted travellers were obliged to take a test ahead of flying to the UK, and self-isolate until a negative result from a post-arrival PCR was received.

And hotel quarantine came back into vogue?

Thousands of arrivals from South Africa and other African nations were obliged to spend thousands of pounds each for hotel quarantine, in a vain attempt to stem the spread of the Omicron variant.

Even when it became painfully clear that arrivals posed less of a risk than the average British person outside the quarantine hotels, and the red list was scrapped, internees were not immediately allowed out.

But during a global pandemic, surely caution is the watchword?

That is the government’s line. A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesperson said: “Our priority was protecting public health, and these measures bought vital time for the rollout of our successful booster programme as we responded to new and concerning variants.

“But we also ensured they were in place for no longer than absolutely necessary, and the UK was the first country in the G7 to remove all travel restrictions.”

What are the key findings of the Transport Select Committee report?

“The way in which the government introduced international travel restrictions during the pandemic was inconsistent, confusing industry and passengers,” the report says.

“The aviation industry, which connects the UK to the world, experienced severe economic difficulties due to government restrictions that were not based on scientific consensus.”

Travel restrictions were “disproportionate to the risks to public health, causing a severe financial shock to the [aviation] sector”.

The MPs are especially scathing on a number of areas:

• Traffic lights: “As international travel restarted in the summer of 2021, the industry, its workforce and passengers were subjected to a traffic light system that was opaque, ambiguous and inconsistent.”
• Red list: “Overly strict international travel restrictions can have unintended consequences, such as encouraging countries not to report variants of concern for fear of experiencing negative economic effects.”
• Hotel quarantine: “There is no evidence that the requirement for travellers from certain countries to quarantine at a hotel, rather than at a location of their choice, has improved the UK’s coronavirus situation compared with other European countries.”
• Testing companies: “Under-regulation has resulted in a dysfunctional travel testing market. The travel testing market was established with no clear protections or means of recourse for consumers. Unclear pricing, misleading advertisements and delays in receiving tests and test results still persist more than a year after the government first introduced travel testing requirements.”

Could it happen again?

After insisting the tight and frequently changing restrictions imposed over 21 months were justified, the DfT spokesperson said: “In future, the government’s default approach will be to use the least stringent measures, to minimise the impact on travel as far as possible and these will only be implemented in extreme circumstances.”

The Transport Select Committee report says: “The government must build international travel into its future pandemic resilience planning, developing a transparent and predictable system that can be used to facilitate safe international travel during potential future health crises.

“Any restrictions on international travel must be proportionate and comparable to those in place across the rest of the UK economy.”

MPs are also demanding that “Border Force uses all the means at its disposal to minimise queues at airports, including deploying onsite engineers to maintain e-gates in real time and allowing under-12s to use e-gates”.