Photo: ©Maksym Yemelyanov/123rf

Holidaymakers from England will be able to travel to Portugal and Israel from later this month under new guidelines issued by the government.

Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Iceland, and St Helena are also on the ‘green’ list revealed today by transport secretary, Grant Shapps.

Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands and the Faroe Islands, as well as South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, complete the list.

Shapps said: “Today marks the first step in our cautious return to international travel, with measures designed above all else to protect public health and ensure we don’t throw away the hard-fought gains we’ve all strived to earn this year.

“This is a new way of doing things, and people should expect travel to be different this summer – with longer checks at the borders, as part of tough measures to prevent new strains of the virus entering the country and putting our fantastic vaccine rollout at risk.”

Travelers visiting countries on the approved list will not face quarantine on their return to the UK, but they will need to take a Covid-19 test before and after their trip.

Currently, people in England face fines for holidaying abroad, and must have a valid reason for foreign travel, with changes to come into effect from May 17th.