The government has scrapped plans for an “amber watchlist” category of countries under UK international travel rules.
Ministers had been considering the new category for countries at risk of being moved into the red group under the so-called traffic light system.
Government sources confirmed that there would be “no amber watchlist”, following backlash from some Tory MPs, ministers, and the travel industry.
Earlier on Monday, PM Boris Johnson had hinted that the government might do a U-turn on rumoured plans to introduce an “amber watchlist” for countries at risk of being demoted from the amber to the red list for international travel.
The amber watchlist would have applied to countries at risk of being moved into the red category – which requires hotel quarantine for 10 days at a cost of £1,750 for an adult.
Mr Johnson said that he wanted to get the travel industry “moving again” and to keep a simple, “user-friendly” system of rules. But he stressed that the government needs to continue to “stop variants coming in”.
The decision to scrap the category comes after new rules allowing fully-vaccinated passengers from the US and amber-list EU countries came into force at 4am on Monday, meaning they now do not have to self-isolate on arrival in the UK.
Meanwhile, a further 17 countries should be eligible to move from the amber list to the green list in the next update to the government’s traffic light list for international travel, according to research by travel consultancy the PC Agency.
The research has identified 12 countries that could go fully green thanks to Covid rates below 30 cases per 100,000 residents and fairly robust vaccination rollouts: Austria, Bosnia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Bhutan, French Polynesia, North Macedonia, Norway and Saudi Arabia have also been identified as candidates for the green watchlist.
The next review is due to take place this week, either on Wednesday or Thursday.
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