No travel industry members on Global Travel Taskforce

The membership of the taskforce will be entirely made up of officials from government departments, as well as representatives from NHS Test and Trace and Public Health England.

The taskforce, which will be chaired by transport secretary Grant Shapps and health secretary Matt Hancock, has promised it will “liaise with the travel sector in order to work on the operationalisation of testing approaches designed to reduce self-isolation”.

It will look at how a testing regime for international arrivals could be implemented to boost “safe travel” to and from the UK during the pandemic, as well as increasing consumer confidence and to “reduce the barriers to a safe and sustainable recovery of international travel”.

But the current travel corridors regime, which allows people arriving back in the UK from certain countries not to have to quarantine for 14 days, will not be examined by the taskforce.

The taskforce is promising to give recommendations to prime minister Boris Johnson “no later than early November”.

Despite having no members from the travel industry, the taskforce said it would consult representatives from the transport industry, international partners, domestic tourism sector, private testing sector, as well as academia and policy institutes. This work will include a series of workshops with these groups.

Will the new Travel Taskforce be fit for duty? That’s the question TTG will be asking in the latest TTG Debate, taking place on Friday (16 October) at 10am.