Nicola Sturgeon confirms Scottish Government is 'considering' a cross-border travel ban

Scots could face being banned from travelling to parts of England and Northern Ireland which are considered ‘high risk’ in a move being actively considered by the Scottish Government.

Nicola Sturgeon is considering a cross-border travel ban

Nicola Sturgeon, speaking to the Scottish Parliament today, confirmed that the Scottish Government is seriously considering a travel ban for people from high risk areas of England, Northern Ireland and Wales into Scotland.

The First Minister publicly backed yesterday’s move by the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, to introduce a cross-border travel ban on people in high-risk parts of England travelling into Wales.

Mr Drakeford had said the decision by Boris Johnson not to introduce travel restrictions was “undermining” the Welsh effort to tackle Covid-19, a position Ms Sturgeon said she backed yesterday.

The First Minister has also written to Mr Johnson about travel and has called for a four nations Cobra meeting on what further restrictions could be introduced across all four nations.

Addressing Holyrood, Ms Sturgeon made it clear a travel ban is being seriously considered.

She said: “Although we have put in place tough measures, we cannot rule out having to go further in future

“For example, the approach to travel being adopted by the Welsh Government to mitigate spread of the virus from high to low prevalence areas not just within each of the four UK nations, but also where necessary between the four UK nations, needs to be considered here too and is being considered here.”

Yesterday she said on Twitter: “These are public health decisions, and nothing to do with constitutional or political debates. @scotgov will also take whatever action we consider necessary to control COVID.”

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