First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has today confirmed that those who are fully vaccinated no longer need to provide a negative Covid test when travelling into Scotland from the beginning of October.
From October 4, those who have had both doses of the vaccine will no longer need to go for a pre-departure test when travelling into the country, so long as they are coming from an amber or green listed country.
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At her Covid briefing today, the First Minister said: From October 4, the blanket requirement for pre-departure tests for people travelling into Scotland will be removed.
"People who have been fully vaccinated – or who are under 18 - will no longer need to provide a pre-departure test result if they are coming from countries not on the red list."
The Scottish Government are also aiming to align their travel policies with the UK Government, and will announce this once it has been confirmed.
The First Minister continued: "We also hope to align our policy on post-arrival testing with that of England, although details of this are still being finalised.
"As I indicated last week, we are making these changes to the travel testing rules with some reluctance.
"We do have a concern that the removal of testing requirements could hamper our efforts to detect new variants.
"However we have also considered the practical consequences of not having an aligned position.
"In particular, we have to be realistic about the fact that people living in Scotland could decide to return here via airports based in England, if different rules are in place for Scottish airports."
With the possibilities of people flouting Scottish rules if they differ to the English variant, the Scottish Government see this as a "disadvantage to our aviation and travel sector, but without any significant public health advantage."
Sturgeon added: "We must be pragmatic. However we will not be complacent.
"I can confirm that we are working with Public Health Scotland to develop additional surveillance safeguards to help guard against the risk of new variants."
Nicola Sturgeon also confirmed that the additional safeguards that the Scottish Government are aiming to put in place will not "incur costs for travellers", in order to keep travelling costs at a minimum.
