France, Spain and Greece are not on ‘green list’ of countries for overseas travel in May

The government have announced countries Brits will be allowed to go on holiday to from 17 May

Transport secretary Grant Shapps announced this evening the countries that have made it on to the government's "green list" for travel. International travel returning on the 17 May was part of the government's roadmap out of lockdown, conditional on a "traffic light" system. Travellers going to green list countries will be able to go abroad without needing periods of quarantine on return. Travellers will need to take a Covid test before and after their trip/ Red countries are those which should not be visited unless under the most extreme of circumstances. Only UK or Irish nationals or residents allowed to return from these nations. They must also pay for 10-day stay at a government quarantine hotel. Amber countries form the biggest group, and returnees from these countries will also need to quarantine on their return from one of these countries. People returning from amber and red list countries will also need to take two tests during their quarantine, one within two days of returning and then another one on day eight. The list of 12 countries on the green list include:

• Portugal
• Gibraltar
• Israel
• Iceland
• Faroe islands
• Brunei
• Falkland islands
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Singapore
• St Helena, Ascension islands and Tristan da Cunha
• South Georgia and Sandwich islands

Meanwhile Turkey, the Maldives and Nepal have been added to the red list. The categorisation of countries will be based on their Covid case rates and the success of vaccine rollouts in each country. Grant Shapps has described allowing people to travel to these green list countries as "tentative" and that there remained "concern about resurgence of Covid." However he said that the removal of restrictions was "necessarily cautious." The countries in each list will be reviewed every three weeks. People looking to travel to any of these nations though should check any restrictions that apply in their country of arrival though. New Zealand and Australia for example still have very strict border controls in place.