According to the new legislation, individuals cannot “leave England to travel to a destination outside the United Kingdom, or travel to, or be present at, an embarkation point for the purpose of travelling from there to a destination outside the United Kingdom” without a reasonable excuse. 

The new coronavirus laws explicitly ban non-essential international travel and non-essential international travel could be fined up to £5,000 under the legislation. 

However, the legislation will allow for international travel for work purposes, study, professional sport, and fulfilling legal obligations overseas. 

Care minister Helen Whately is urging people to refrain from booking holidays overseas.

“I would advise people to wait until the international travel task force has reported back before going ahead and booking international holidays.”, she told ITV.

The travel task force is looking into the issue of international tourism, and whether or not it will advise it to take place. 

The Minister of Innovation Lord Bethell said the UK may put all of its European neighbours on a travel red list, accusing them of “rejecting the vaccine policy” and “not embracing the opportunity that a vaccine provides for driving down infection rates and protecting their populations.”

“But we are all aware that the possibility lies that we will have to red list all of our European neighbours”, Minister Bethell said. 

Currently, most than 50% of adults in the UK have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.