The Secretary of State for Transport (Grant Shapps) With your
permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement
about international travel. It is almost two years to the day since
the country first went into lockdown—two years in which we have
fought an exceptionally difficult and unpredictable pandemic, two
years of unprecedented restrictions on mobility and two years that
have had a drastic impact on travel and on the industry. However,
we have now...Request free trial
The Secretary of State for Transport ()
With your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make
a statement about international travel.
It is almost two years to the day since the country first went
into lockdown—two years in which we have fought an exceptionally
difficult and unpredictable pandemic, two years of unprecedented
restrictions on mobility and two years that have had a drastic
impact on travel and on the industry. However, we have now
reached an important milestone in our journey back to
pre-pandemic normality. After getting rid of testing requirements
for eligible vaccinated passengers a few weeks ago, I am pleased
to confirm that we are once again leading the way by removing all
the remaining covid measures affecting international travel into
the UK.
That means we are the first major economy to get back to the kind
of restriction-free travel we all enjoyed before covid. Whether
for reuniting with friends and family, holidays or business
trips, from 4 am on Friday 18 March—this Friday—there will be no
testing or quarantine requirements for any passengers arriving
into the UK, regardless of their vaccination status, and we will
go further. I have heard the calls from passengers, airlines and
Members across the House that the passenger locator form is a
burden that has simply outlived its usefulness, so I am delighted
to confirm that, from Friday, we will be removing the passenger
locator form for all passengers. No more quarantine, no more
tests and no more forms—international travel is back.
It will be the first time in two years that we can enable
frictionless journeys for passengers travelling to the UK, and
the remaining international travel legislation will therefore be
revoked this Friday—18 March—two months earlier than the original
expiry date of 16 May. The devolved Administrations have
confirmed that they will align on the removal of these measures,
so this change will be UK-wide. [Interruption.] I hear the hon.
Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East () chuntering away from a sedentary
position. I will come to the Opposition policy, which was both to
have further restrictions and then to lift restrictions—often
simultaneously—depending on which Member on the Front Bench we
listened to.
Today’s announcement is another vital step in our strategy set
out by the Prime Minister last month for Britain to live with
covid-19 and to manage an endemic virus. Thanks to the success of
our vaccine and booster programmes in building population-wide
immunity—further boosters are on the way for the most vulnerable
this spring—we are in the strongest possible position to lift
covid travel regulations without compromising public health.
We must of course remain vigilant against possible future
variants, but thanks to the robust protective shield we have
built, we can avoid simply reverting to the same restrictions we
have used in the past. Even if another variant of concern
emerges, next time we will react differently. We have learned a
lot during this pandemic, and we will use that experience to
respond in more measured ways and more flexible ways. For
example, while quarantine hotels were appropriate for red-list
arrivals at an earlier stage of the pandemic, we are now standing
down the remaining capacity. Our default approach in future will
be to take the least stringent possible measures, avoiding border
restrictions to minimise impacts on travel. So we will maintain a
range of contingency measures in reserve, tailoring our response
to the situation. Our first recourse will be to public health
guidance, and guidance to ports, airports and operators on how
passengers and staff can stay safe and protect others, and we
will avoid stricter restrictions wherever we possibly can.
Although we are dropping all testing and quarantine requirements,
our advice to eligible adults who have not been vaccinated stays
the same: “If you’ve not got jabbed, then please get your
vaccinations. If you’ve had two jabs, please get a booster. It
will boost and protect your health, it will protect vulnerable
people around you and it will smooth travel to other countries.”
It is important to say that vaccination status may continue to be
required in other countries to make journeys seamless. Passengers
should continue to check travel advice on the Foreign,
Commonwealth and Development Office website, before they book and
travel, to see what restrictions may still be in place in the
countries people are visiting.
As we better deal with covid-19 at home, we will continue to make
our leading contribution to tackling the disease abroad. We are
sending 100 million further doses of vaccines to other countries
by this summer. More than 2.6 billion doses of the
Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have now been supplied to countries
around the world on a non-profit basis, almost two thirds of
which have gone to low and lower middle-income nations. We are
working with key international partners to establish common rules
and common contingency measures, reflecting what we have learned
from this pandemic, to use in the future.
While all of these measures have been necessary, I do not
underestimate for one second just how hard travel restrictions
have been. They have been difficult for passengers, and damaging
for travel and tourism in particular. Now that we have lifted the
final covid measures on inbound flights, the industry will play a
vital role in helping build back better from the pandemic. Soon
we will publish our strategic framework for aviation, supporting
the sector and the jobs that rely on it, and as part of that we
will be considering the workforce, skills, connectivity and of
course the crucial mission to deliver our net-zero commitments. I
will set out more details about the strategic framework in due
course.
We promised that we would keep draconian and costly covid
measures in place for not a day longer than was absolutely
necessary. Now we stand as one of the most vaccinated countries
in the world, and we are also the first major economy to travel
freely once again without restrictions. The UK has achieved many
hard-won gains over the past two years thanks to the endurance
and resolve of the public. Now we are seeing the long-awaited
rewards for that patience and determination. The removal of all
remaining travel measures this Friday will mean passengers can
book trips with confidence, businesses can plan with greater
certainty and Britain can continue to bounce back from the
pandemic, as we learn to live with covid. I commend this
statement to the House.
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
I call the shadow Secretary of State.
2.08pm
(Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab)
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his
statement. The aviation industry is a critical part of the UK
economy, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs, and we all
want to see a safe return to international travel, which is why,
earlier this year, Labour outlined our comprehensive plan to live
well with covid and to protect lives and livelihoods.
We know that the virus will continue to change and adapt and we
will need to live with it as it does, and that is critical when
it comes to the travel industry. Another variant of concern may
emerge, as the Secretary of State has acknowledged, and lessons
must be learned from previous Government responses that damaged
the industry. He partially outlined some contingency measures,
but he had previously committed to publishing a full contingency
strategy to deal with possible future variants. With surging
cases in international hubs such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, does
he agree that he should be fully transparent about his plans, and
that that would boost confidence for the travelling public and
the airline industry? Can we get a commitment to the publication
of that strategy today?
Today’s announcement, which ends restrictions for the
unvaccinated, is a reminder of another stark truth: in an era of
global international travel, no one is safe until everyone is
safe. We in the UK have learned that lesson the hard way. The
Secretary of State has confirmed that we will be sending 100
million doses to low-income countries by the summer. Will he
explain how 77 million doses will be delivered in just three
months, when 23 million have been delivered over the past nine?
If we are to break the cycle of new variants, there is only one
way to do it: to vaccinate the world.
The elephant in the room today for the Transport Secretary is the
cost of living crisis about to engulf this country. The barrier
to passengers booking holidays with confidence this spring and
summer is not a passenger locator form; it is the historic
collapse in living standards facing millions, and the
Conservatives’ refusal to do anything about it. The barrier will
be the record rise in energy bills in two weeks’ time, the brutal
national insurance hike that his Government are imposing on
working people, and the record prices of petrol that are
swallowing up the incomes of millions of British people as we
speak.
This country is facing the largest decline in living standards
since the 1950s, putting a holiday beyond the reach of many, and
the Transport Secretary has literally nothing to say. Indeed, the
only step he has taken is to hike up rail fares by the largest
amount in a decade. Today’s announcement eases the remaining
travel restrictions, but let us be clear: the barriers to
holidays this summer are the tax rises his Government are
imposing on hard-working families, the surging petrol prices, and
the cost of living crisis made in Downing Street. Either he is
oblivious to this crisis, or he is completely indifferent. Either
way, is it not time this Government woke up?
I thought we were here to talk about releasing the final covid
measures, but I am always up for the challenge and I am happy to
respond to the hon. Lady. She started by talking about the
importance of and costs to the aviation industry, and I have an
ask for her in return. Yesterday, it became apparent that the
Labour Government in Wales were less than chuffed with the idea
of removing those final measures. Indeed, they want to continue
to pile on the costs, bureaucracy and red tape of passenger
locator forms, even though they are past their point of
relevance. That is what the Labour Government want to do in
Wales, and therefore we should not take lectures on how to
improve things for the industry. I would have thought that being
the first major economy in the world to make travel covid-free in
terms of removing those forms would have been warmly welcomed,
and I think the Welsh Government could do the same.
The hon. Lady referred to the importance of vaccination and I
entirely agree. Moments ago we were talking behind the Speaker’s
Chair about the terrible figures in Hong Kong to which she
referred, and noting the fact that the deaths that are occurring
from the spike in cases in Hong Kong appear to be entirely down
to the lack of booster vaccinations. I know she will join me in
being grateful that we in this country have managed to get those
booster vaccinations to the population most at risk, particularly
older people.
The hon. Lady asked about the toolkit of responses if covid comes
back, and we had an extensive conversation about that with the UK
Health Security Agency in our covid operations meeting yesterday.
The collective decision, across all four nations, was that since
we do not know the exact form that covid will take in future,
rather than listing every possible measure—which, by the way, is
every possible measure that has been taken in the past—it would
be better and more responsible to see what we are facing in the
specific when we see a variant of concern. Members across the
House will already know the range of events and possibilities
available, noting that vaccinations and pharmaceutical measures
make those very different. [Interruption.] I do not agree with
the hon. Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East that listing a
range of increasingly draconian measures will somehow reassure
the industry. I think it would be quite the opposite, and that
was agreed across all four nations.
Finally, the hon. Lady went on to discuss the cost of living—a
very valid subject to be discussing, although I am not sure it
quite fits this debate. But briefly, I thought that the Leader of
the Opposition had stood at that Dispatch Box a couple of weeks
ago and acknowledged and warned the House that the cost of living
would rise because of the war in Ukraine—I quote the right hon.
and learned Gentleman when I say that. The hon. Lady asked
specifically what we have done about the cost of petrol in tanks,
but for 10 years, 11 years, we have frozen fuel duty, and for
every one of those years Labour opposed that—every single year
without fail. That measure saved £15 per gallon for the average
family car, but what have Labour Members done? They have voted
against it every time. They now have the chutzpah to come to the
Dispatch Box and ask what we are doing about it. It is simply
extraordinary. The hon. Lady then referred to rail fares, which
have risen at nearly half the level of inflation. That represents
a real-terms cut in rail fares because, as she knows, inflation
is higher.
The hon. Lady mentioned and referenced employment and
unemployment, and I have three facts for her. First, we have
record levels of employment in this country, which are higher
than before covid. Secondly, unemployment has been falling every
month for the past year. Thirdly, no Labour Government in history
have left power with unemployment lower than when they came to
office.
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
I call the Chair of the Transport Committee, .
(Bexhill and Battle) (Con)
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was beginning to wonder which
statement I had walked in on. Let us return to the theme of
international travel, not least because thousands of people have
worked in that industry over the past two years and have suffered
greatly. It would be respectful of this place to focus on them,
rather than on some of the wider issues that have just been
brought up.
I warmly welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement. Over the
past two years I know that he has battled hard to support this
sector. These are the last barriers to be removed, and I hope the
industry will now be ready for lift off. Border Force resources
will be required once capacity increases in the summer. Will he
do everything in his power, working with the Home Secretary, to
ensure that we have everybody we need at the airports? I used the
airport at the weekend. Border Force was fantastic and really
efficient, but as numbers upscale, so must it upscale.
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. Ensuring that Border
Force and its resources are in the right place will be important,
especially when our airports get busier again. I will certainly
undertake to speak to my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary
about those provisions. It might interest the House to know that
with e-gates, not having to check a separate database for the
passenger locator form—that was automatically carried out by
e-gates, using both software and hardware—saves up to six seconds
per passenger coming through. That should also help to relieve
some of the queueing.
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
I call the SNP spokesperson, .
(Paisley and Renfrewshire
North) (SNP)
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his
statement. It has become increasingly clear that the much vaunted
four-nations approach often stems from situations where the
devolved Governments are left with little choice, given the
nature of the devolution funding settlement. Whether for
furlough, community testing, or the various travel arrangements,
when the devolved Governments perhaps took a different view, at
least with the timing of such decisions, no public money would be
made available for a different public health approach. It is not
quite a “do as I say” approach; it is more a “do as we will fund”
approach. Borrowed funds are obviously not available to the
devolved Administrations, and as the Secretary of State alluded,
the Welsh Government have said they are extremely disappointed at
the dropping of testing requirements. The Scottish Government
have said that they followed the UK Government to avoid the harm
to tourism caused by non-alignment. Is this another example of
the UK Government making a decision, and strong-arming the
devolved Administrations into following them to avoid economic
disadvantage?
Despite the unease that some members of society will have
following these announcements, particularly given the rather
nebulous commitment to continued surveillance, this is welcome
news for the aviation and travel sectors, which come out of the
pandemic in much poorer, smaller and less competitive shape than
they entered it. That is largely a result of the extremely poor
support given to the sector, in which the UK stood out among top
aviation markets for its paucity of support.
The future is far from certain with events in Ukraine and covid
potentially causing disruption as well as the cost of living, as
has been alluded to. So I would like the Government to commit to
being a bit more fleet of foot on aviation support should the
need arise. Indeed, when will the strategic aviation review be
published?
The UK Government have said that the UK Health Security Agency
will continue to monitor variants of concern, so, further to the
concerns outlined by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley
(), will the Secretary of State
explain what measures will be part of that continued monitoring,
how long it will operate for and how it will be funded? Lastly,
what consideration at all did the Secretary of State give to the
position of devolved Governments in reaching the decision that he
has announced?
I should point out to the hon. Gentleman and the House that the
UK Health Security Agency is a four-nations body made up of the
chief medical officers from all parts of the United Kingdom,
including Scotland. Therefore, when we came to yesterday’s
discussion at Covid-O, which included Scottish Ministers, we
could take into account the advice provided. I do not want to
accuse him of being happy to see the forms and bureaucracy
scrapped while still somehow opposing it, but it seems to me that
if one is really serious about cutting bureaucracy, one should
welcome this step.
The hon. Gentleman refers to support that he claims the Scottish
Government have given to aviation, but it is worth reminding the
House that that is not what Edinburgh and Glasgow airports have
said. They were upset that Ministers in Scotland refused to meet
them, which they said was “galling” and in “stark contrast” to
the UK Government’s approach. Indeed, the Scottish Passenger
Agents’ Association said that its industry had been “sacrificed”
by the SNP—its word rather than mine. It is important to say that
we are supporting the sector, not least by removing these
restrictions.
The hon. Gentleman asked about the strategic aviation review. I
hope he will accept that there is no point in carrying out a
review during omicron and covid—we want to do it as the industry
comes out—so that will be forthcoming. He asked a sensible
question about continued monitoring, which will happen in two
ways. First, he will be familiar with me having said many times
at the Dispatch Box when we were in the midst of the pandemic
that the UK was carrying out up to 50% of the genomic sequencing
in the entire world. That figure is now different, because we
have helped and other countries have caught up, so, although we
are carrying on our programme, much of that genomic sequencing is
happening around the world rather than needing to be done
specifically here. Secondly, we have the programme led by the
Office for National Statistics that carries on finding out where
coronavirus is in the country and the extent to which different
variants might be starting to take hold. We can therefore
continue to monitor things comprehensively through both genomic
sequencing and the covid-19 infection survey of the
population.
(Crawley) (Con)
May I express my gratitude to my right hon. Friend the Secretary
of State for removing all covid-19 international travel
restrictions for those coming into the United Kingdom? Will he
join me in welcoming the reopening of the south terminal at
Gatwick airport on 27 March and the thousands of job vacancies
now available and needing to be filled as we recover our industry
and our economy?
I do not think it is too much of an exaggeration to say that
virtually nobody in the House has done more than my hon. Friend
to promote the case of the hard-pressed aviation sector during
the last two years of the crisis. It is great news that Gatwick’s
south terminal will reopen on 27 March; I very much hope to be
there for that. I know that he shares my enthusiasm for all the
work that carried on during the crisis to aim for jet zero, to
help clean up the aviation sector and ensure that, by 2050, we
have not only a booming British aviation sector but a cleaner
one.
(Exeter) (Lab)
I am delighted that England is following Norway, Ireland, Hungary
and several other countries in lifting all remaining travel
restrictions. Will the Secretary of State assure me that when the
public inquiry into covid happens, it will have full access to
all the various and quite secretive committees that the
Government relied on when they imposed those travel restrictions?
Many of us believe, and growing evidence suggests, that for
countries such as ours, which were never going to have a
zero-covid strategy, the draconian travel restrictions did more
harm than good.
For the sake of completeness, I will mention Ireland, Iceland,
Lithuania, Norway and Slovenia, which have either removed or will
shortly remove measures to put themselves in the same position. I
say “of leading economies” because I am not aware of any other G7
economy that has gone as far as us in scrapping restrictions and
making it easier to travel.
The inquiry will be there to learn the lessons from covid, and it
is incredibly important that it does so not just in relation to
travel but across everything that happened during covid. Of
course, we want to learn the lessons because, without learning
the lessons of the past, we can never improve things for the
future.
(Wellingborough) (Con)
I have learned from being in this House that when the Government
do something good and well, few Opposition Back Benchers turn
up—we have only one today—and the three shadow Ministers have
heckled from a sedentary position because they know that the
Government have done a good job. Is it not true that the Prime
Minister’s leadership by getting the vaccine and unlocking our
society has allowed us to have freedom day for travel this
Friday? Does the Secretary of State have to sign a piece of paper
or lay a statutory instrument before the House? If he just needs
to sign a piece of paper, why does he not do so tonight so that
we can start tomorrow?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We all remember Margaret
Keenan receiving that very first properly approved vaccination in
the entire world, and that happened in this country. It was not
just that: we also got the vaccination programme out first and,
critically, the booster programme out first and showed world
leadership. Actually—this is partly in response to the comments
of the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (); I did not pick up this
point—2.6 billion people have received the Oxford-AstraZeneca
vaccination, so we have made more of a contribution than any
other country in the world. It is absolutely right to recognise
all of that.
I do not know the technicalities of quite what happens—I imagine
that we must sign an SI—but I do know that we need a few days to
alert everyone to change the systems for Border Force and ensure
that people already away can adjust to the change. However, it is
only three more sleeps, is it not? I hope that my hon. Friend can
contain himself.
(Buckingham) (Con)
I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement. It is the
right thing to do and, as I have said before, freedom works.
However, may I press him on his answer to the Chair of the
Transport Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and
Battle () about ensuring that, after a period of having been
wound down to deal with fewer passengers, ports of entry are
ready to give that warm British welcome to people either
returning home or visiting for travel and leisure? I heard a
horror story the other day that, at Heathrow terminal 5, e-gates
were telling everybody to seek assistance but there was only one
official. Will he do everything possible to support our airports
and work with the Home Office to ensure that all ports of entry
are ready to receive people?
I absolutely will do that. I know that Border Force has been
working hard, sometimes under difficult conditions. Many people
do not realise that every time there was a change in which
countries were added or removed or rules changed—there were
hundreds of them—that often required not just software but
hardware changes. As a passenger put their passport down on an
egate, it was reading not only their passport for permission to
enter but checking the passenger locator form, their vaccination
status and how they had filled in the form—it was doing an awful
lot of work behind the scenes. Updates, unfortunately, commonly
caused breaks in that system. As far as I know, we were the only
country in the world to even attempt anything as ambitious on
e-gates—I certainly came across no equivalent in North America or
Europe. It is really important that much of that bureaucracy will
be removed as that should smooth things out. As I said to my hon.
Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (), I will discuss Border Force resourcing with the
Home Secretary.
(Shrewsbury and Atcham)
(Con)
I think that everybody in the House will warmly welcome the
Secretary of State’s announcement about extra vaccines being
distributed around the world. Will he ensure that a list of
countries receiving them is put in the Library for us to check?
Will he assure me that a good number of very poor Commonwealth
countries are prioritised in the programme?
It is certainly the case that the vast majority of the
vaccinations through Oxford-AstraZeneca have gone to mid and
lower-income countries. Many will have been used by Commonwealth
countries. I should have answered in detail the point made on
that by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (). I will place a note in the
House of Commons Library to provide a breakdown of where those
have gone and answer the further question about how the 100
million is worked out. But I think all of us in the House,
regardless of which side we sit on, can be incredibly proud of
this country’s literally global lead in protecting the world
against coronavirus.
(Gloucester) (Con)
Axing all the remaining covid restrictions for outgoing
travellers will be warmly welcomed by those working in the
travel, aviation, airport and aerospace sectors, including my
wife and many Gloucester constituents. Those are all areas of
expertise and employment across the UK. Does my right hon. Friend
share my pride and enthusiasm for the new record-breaking
electric aircraft, the Spirit of Innovation, developed at
Gloucestershire airport, and the new hydrogen aircraft developed
at Kemble airport, also in Gloucestershire, showing that in a
county famed for the first ever jet-engined aircraft take-off, we
can now focus on an exciting future for travel and aviation at
much less cost to the environment?
I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. I do not want to
disappoint him or his wife. It is incoming traffic that will have
the reduction in bureaucracy. On outgoing, we still encourage
people to check with the FCDO. As I pointed out a couple of
times, most other countries still have some restrictions. But is
he right about that electric aircraft, which is a Rolls-Royce
project—the world’s fastest flying electric aircraft being
produced right here in the UK? He is. ZeroAvia is producing the
world’s first hydrogen aircraft, which is now on its second
version, a larger 20-seat aircraft. There is a lot of innovation,
backed by £180 million, to assist all this decarbonisation of
aviation. It is very exciting and it leads to a very strong
future for British aviation.
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