Scientists, academics and Heathrow airport questioned on UK’s Covid-19 border strategy

13 July 2021

The Home Affairs Committee examines the future strategy and operations of UK borders in the on-going response to Covid-19

Witnesses

Wednesday 14 July 2021

At 10.30am

Professor Adam Finn, University of Bristol, Member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation
Elizabeth Hegarty, Director of Services at Heathrow
Kelley Lee, Professor and Research Chair in Global Health Governance, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University (Canada) and Chair of the international academic research group Pandemic-Borders.
Christina Pagel, Director of Clinical Operational Research Unit at UCL and member of Independent SAGE

The UK currently operates a traffic-light system for indicating whether someone entering the country should quarantine in a hotel, at home or enter without restrictions. Passengers are also required to take Covid tests before and after travel.

The system has come under criticism for its inability to prevent the spread of the delta variant, currently the dominant Covid strain in the UK. Concerns have also been raised about how people entering the country are monitored to ensure they comply with rules, and the potential for air hubs to act as hot-spots for spreading the virus.

The session will examine how well the current traffic light and testing system manages the risk of the spread of Covid through international travel and reduces the threat of new strains entering the UK.

It will investigate how other nations are approaching international travel restrictions and consider what lessons can be learnt to improve the UK’s own approach.

The Committee will also explore how the Government’s proposal to allow double vaccinated passengers to carry Covid passports could remove the need for fully vaccinated people to isolate on return from amber list countries.

Further information

Image: dannyman/wikimedia/Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)