Holidaymakers will be able to travel freely between Scotland and England this summer thanks to the speed of the covid vaccine roll-out, Matt Hancoock has predicted.
Speaking on a visit to the Glasgow lighthouse lab, the UK Health Secretary said was confident travel restrictions would be lifted in time for the summer staycations across the UK.
Hancock said: “I’m now more optimistic about having a great British summer than I have been at any time, thanks to the speed and the effectiveness of the vaccine rollout.”
“By great British summer I absolutely mean people being able to enjoy travel across the whole of the UK. Of course, the travel rules for Scotland are matter out for the Scottish Government, rightly, but I think we can all see that we can make strides down that roadmap, thanks to the speed of the vaccine rollout.”
Outdoor mixing and a return of retail shops is pencilled in for Monday 5th April in Scotland, depending on the results of all pupils returning to school.
Opening shops will be the the final step before Scotland moves into the tiered lockdown system currently expected to come into place from April 26.
Beyond that Nicola Sturgeon has said she is considering “accelerating" the easing of lockdown restrictions following recent positive data on the state of the pandemic.
However ,she warned this week that travel restrictions in Scotland will remain for “some time yet” as she stressed it is important that cases of the virus, particularly of new variants of the virus, were not imported into the country.
The UK government aims to lift even international travel restrictions by June 21 and Hancock struck a more optimistic tone on his Glasgow visit.
He said: “I think we’ll be able to lift the travel restrictions in England within the roadmap. That roadmap is possible both here in Scotland and in England, because of the vaccine programme.”
Hancock was visiting Scotland on Wednesday to see work on vaccines and to publicise the Health Regulatory Authority announcement that will be a fast-track approach to approving new vaccines to tackle coronavirus variants.
He said: “One of the factors we have to take into to be vigilant about in that roadmap is the emergence of new variants in case the current vaccines are not as effective. And that’s why today’s announcement by the HRA is so important because it will allow us as fast as safely possible to have a new vaccine against a variant, if that is, is needed.”
Hancock hailed the UK-wide partnership to develop and deliver the vaccine and said “the strength of the UK” was key to the vaccine roll-out.
He said: “The vaccine programme has been a huge success in every part of the UK, including across Scotland, and we can see that the UK wide vaccination programme is saving lives right now.
“My job is to make sure that we work together to get the jab into peoples' arms as fast as we can. What we need to be doing is delivering for the citizens who we serve right across the UK and save lives.
"That’s what matters, and the there’s absolutely no doubt that the strength of the UK working together has meant that we can go as fast as we have on the vaccine rollout.”
