Scottish Government confirms Scottish international travel rules will align with rest of UK

28th September 2021

Travel restrictions for people entering the country have been substantially eased by the Scottish Government. Pre-departure tests for fully vaccinated travellers will be removed, while travellers from non-red list countries who have been fully vaccinated in a country that meets recognised standards of certifications will no longer be required to provide evidence of a negative test result before they can travel to Scotland. The Scottish Government has confirmed that Scotland will align with the UK post-arrival testing regime. The traffic light system of checks for international travel put in place to protect the public health comes to an end on 4 October. Green and amber classifications are merged while the red list is retained for those countries deemed to have high COVID19 case rates or variants of concern.

Commenting on the changes, Alan Mitchell, Chief Executive of Fife Chamber, said: “These changes are very welcome, even though it appears that the Scottish Government has adopted them reluctantly. Had the Scottish Government maintained the previous regime while England was following the EU by making it easier for fully vaccinated people to travel, the aviation sector, which has already been badly affected during Covid, would have been decimated. As it is, the decision has probably come too late to benefit from the October school holidays, but at least Scottish firms now know that they can compete on a level playing field with their English counterparts in the future.“

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