The list of countries Britons can travel to when restrictions are eased on May 17 will be revealed shortly, Dominic Raab has confirmed. 

The Government is set to announce next week travel will again be permitted to certain nations.

The current ban on international travel will be replaced with a traffic light system, placing countries on a ‘green’, ‘amber’ or ‘red’ lists. 

Foreign Secretary Raab has said the list of nations where international travel will be permitted is ‘coming shortly’.

He told The Andrew Marr Show this morning: ‘We said we’d make the changes on May 17 and we would set out the details of the new system, which is a traffic light system, before then. So, it’s coming shortly.’

Only a ‘tiny handful’ of countries will make it to the ‘green list’ first, and travellers would still have to take a PCR test upon returning to the UK, even if they have been vaccinated. 

Travel agents expect a rush for bookings once the green list countries are announced and said people were delaying plans until then.

At first, only Gibraltar, Israel, Iceland and Malta are due to be labelled green, and maybe the United States. 

Another source told the Mail on Sunday Portugal could also be included. 

CEO of travel consultancy the PC Agency Paul Charles also suggested a number of counties outside of Europe were going on the green list, including Morocco, Barbados, Jamaica, Bermuda.

If a country is on the ‘amber list’ – as most European countries are initially expected to be – travellers will have to quarantine and take tests upon their return. 

A senior government source told The Telegraph ministers believe they can ‘keep tight controls in place at the border while taking a significant step forward on international travel’.

The Joint Biosecurity Centre will assess data and provide analysis to the Government prior to any decisions being made on travel.

According to reports, it will take into consideration a country’s percentage of vaccinations, coronavirus infection rate, variants and genomic sequencing abilities. 

The Sun reported the Government would change its ‘Minimise Travel’ guidance with a ‘Travel safely, plan ahead’ slogan.

It added the traffic light system would be reviewed every three weeks. 

Currently, anyone returning to the UK from abroad must quarantine for 10 days and take a PCR test on day two and eight, costing upwards of £200. 

If they are returning from a red list country, such as India, they must book a £1,700-hotel quarantine package.

The traffic light system is expected to be reviewed at the end of next month ahead of the busy summer period.

The initial traffic light system was mean to be released by yesterday but the Government missed this deadline and the Department of Transport has now said it will be published in ‘early May’.

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