Which countries are likely to be added to the green list?

The UK’s official green list, which came into effect from 17 May, contains just 12 destinations.

These select few countries, of which British travellers can only feasibly visit a slim handful, are the only places the government currently recommends travelling to on holiday.

As part of the lifting of the blanket recreational travel ban in England, countries have been allotted a colour – green, amber or red – and assigned restrictions of varying severity to match. Follow live: Green list for travel to be reviewed today

During Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson reiterated the government’s position that people should only be holidaying in countries rated green: “It is very, very clear – you should not be going to an amber list country except for some extreme circumstance, such as the serious illness of a family member. You should not be going to an amber list country on holiday.”

At the moment, Portugal is the only mainstream tourism destination on the green list. But which countries might be added to it on the next update? Here’s what we know so far.

Which countries are on the green list right now?

There are 12 places on the green list currently: Ascension Island, Australia, Brunei, the Falkland Islands, the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand, Portugal, Tristan da Cunha, St Helena, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

The green list is not reciprocal: many of the locations are closed to British travellers, and others will accept only tourists who have been fully vaccinated. Portugal and Gibraltar are the most obvious holiday candidates letting in Brits with few requirements other than testing; Iceland is only letting in British tourists who can prove they are fully vaccinated.

When will the green list be updated?

The lists will be reviewed every three weeks – the first update will take place on 3 June. Any changes will then come into effect a week after the review, on 10 June.

Any amends to the lists will be informed by public health advice, including the Joint Biosecurity Centre’s assessment of the latest data.

“These regular review points will allow the government to balance helping the public to understand Covid requirements when travelling to England while allowing us to constantly evaluate the risk for different countries,” according to the Department for Transport (DfT).

The government will also be publishing a green watchlist in the future, to provide an indication of which countries are at risk from moving from green to amber.

Which countries might be added to the green list?

Boris Johnson has said that “quite a few” countries could be added in the first review of the traffic light system, due to take place in the first week of June, reports The Telegraph.

He reportedly made the remarks at a meeting of the 1922 Conservative backbench committee, indicating that “near misses” that were almost designated green initially were likely to make the cut this time round.

The contenders are thought to include Malta, Finland, Grenada, the Cayman Islands, Fiji, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos and Anguilla.

Another clue for new additions could be found on the Foreign Office (FCDO) advice pages. The FCDO has in place a blanket advisory against all non-essential travel, which it has exempted a number of destinations from. Obviously, most of the green list nations are exempt; but there are also some amber list exemptions, particularly islands that are faring better than their mainland counterparts.

Among these are Spain’s Canary Islands; the Greek islands of Rhodes, Kos, Zante, Corfu and Crete; and Malta. The FCDO says it has lifted its advisory “based on the current assessment of Covid-19 risks”, which could mean these destinations meet the criteria to move from amber to green in June.

What about holiday islands?

However, the same colour designation might not apply to entire countries in the next review. The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has said that an “islands approach”, similar to 2020, will be adopted this summer.

He told the BBC’s Today programme: “I’ve always said that of course it’s desirable where an aircraft can fly direct to an island, for example, and that island is therefore accessible in that you don’t need to go via the mainland, that you look at that differently. That’s what we did last year as well.”

And the aviation minister, Robert Courts, recently said British tourists could be given the go ahead to visit islands through the traffic light system.

Independent MP Margaret Ferrier asked transport ministers in a written question whether the traffic light system would “include an island policy to reopen routes to relatively low-risk regions of nations as was implemented in summer 2020”.

Mr Courts’s response, first reported by The Telegraph, stated: “The government will take an island approach for border measures where possible.

“Changes to the traffic light country system will be reviewed and implemented every three weeks, unless concerning evidence means we need to act faster to protect public health.”

What are the restrictions for travellers returning from green countries?

Green countries come with the lightest restrictions for returning travellers: they must provide a negative Covid test result in order to travel to the UK, and then take a PCR test within two days of arrival. No quarantine is required.