After days of speculation, the UK Government has confirmed its new rules and restrictions for travellers coming in and out of England.
The travel traffic light system - which sees countries arranged into red, amber and green lists according to their risk level - has been axed, with a simpler system taking its place.
Announcing the news on Friday afternoon, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the decision on a new system was taken to strike “the right balance to manage the public health risk as number one priority”.
The new travel system will instead categorise countries as green and red destinations.
There is a reduction in the number of countries on the red list too with eight countries and territories coming off the red list from Wednesday September 22 at 4am, including Turkey, Pakistan and the Maldives.
Until now arrivals from green list countries have had to take a pre-departure test as well as a PCR test on or before day two of their arrival back in the UK, but did not need to quarantine in the event of a negative test result.
Now, day two PCR tests are to be replaced with a cheaper lateral flow test from Monday October 4 and if you’re fully vaccinated you won’t need a pre-departure test before arrival into England from a non-red country.
From Mon 4 October, if you’re fully vaccinated you won’t need a pre-departure test before arrival into England from a non-red country and from later in October, will be able to replace the day two PCR test with a cheaper lateral flow.
The rules above all apply to England at present but it is expected that the Scottish Government will follow suit.
Get every update from today on our dedicated live blog here.
