FCDO travel advice at odds with latest traffic lights update

Transport secretary Grant Shapps on Friday (17 September) confirmed eight countries would be removed from the red list on Wednesday (22 September), including Egypt and the Maldives.

These countries will be placed on a new, expanded green list with the amber list set to be scrapped in a wholesale simplification of the UK’s travel rules.

However, over the weekend, the FCDO lifted its advice against all but essential travel on Covid grounds to just three of the eight – Turkey, Kenya and Oman.

The Covid-specific advisories for Egypt, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh all remained in place on Monday morning (20 September).

It is not the first time travel has suffered from inconsistencies in the alignment between the Foreign Office’s independent advice and the Department for Transport-led traffic light regime.

The removal of the FCDO’s Covid-specific travel advisories is of material significance too as an FCDO advisory against all but essential travel is typically the trigger for insurance policies to be invalidated, although several firms are now offering travel insurance against FCDO advice.