Breaking: International Travel – Rules relaxed from 7 January – No need for pre-departure tests and self-isolation for fully vaccinated passengers

The Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps made the announcement today 5 January.

Mr Shapps said:

“We’re removing the temporary extra testing measures we introduced last year at the border to slow cases of Omicron coming to the UK.

“Now Omicron is the dominant variant and is widespread in the UK, these measures are no longer proportionate.

“Testing rules will be relaxed – Fully vaccinated passengers & under 18s will NO LONGER need to take a pre-departure test before returning to England if arriving after 4am Fri 7 January.

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“Fully vaccinated passengers & under 18s will NO LONGER need to self-isolate whilst waiting for post-arrival results if arriving after 4am Friday 7 January.

“After arrival in England, all fully vaxxed people & under 18s will now only need to take a LATERAL FLOW test (instead of a PCR test) if they arrive after 4am Sunday 9 Jan.

“Free NHS lateral flow tests CANNOT be used for international travel, to protect NHS capacity

“If your post-arrival lateral flow test comes out positive, you must self-isolate & take a free NHS PCR test to confirm the result.

“By reducing testing requirements for fully vaxxed passengers to just a lateral flow post-arrival, we’re supporting the safe reopening of international travel

“We’ll do a full review of travel measures by the end of Jan to ensure a stable system is in place for 2022.”