Transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has confirmed that all remaining Covid-19 travel measures will be scrapped in the coming days.

Currently, everyone travelling to the UK must complete a passenger locator form before they arrive.

Travellers who are not fully vaccinated have to take a Covid-19 test before departure, fill in the form and book and pay for a PCR test after arriving.

Shapps confirmed in a tweet that these rules will end at 04:00 on Friday.

His announcement means that passengers who are not fully vaccinated will no longer have to take Covid-19 tests before and after travelling to the UK.

The passenger locator form will no longer be necessary either.

People planning an overseas trip will still need to be aware of other countries’ entry rules.

TRAVEL UPDATE

All remaining Covid travel measures, including the Passenger Locator Form and tests for all arrivals, will be stood down for travel to the UK from 4am on 18 March.

These changes are possible due to our vaccine rollout and mean greater freedom in time for Easter.

— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) March 14, 2022

A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson welcomed the news: “The removal of all remaining UK travel restrictions, including the passenger locator form, is the final important step towards frictionless air travel, helping to further restore consumer confidence as we welcome more customers back to the skies this spring and summer.

“With these barriers to travel removed, Britain is open for business and passengers can reconnect with loved ones and business colleagues once again.”

The Board of Airline Representatives in the UK (BAR UK) echoed the sentiments.

Dale Keller, chief executive of BAR UK said: “This is a truly significant milestone and passengers, and airlines will be delighted that the passenger locator form is banished now that international travel into the UK will be harmonised with the domestic reopening.

“We applaud this pragmatic decision by ministers to restore freedom of international travel by removing all remaining Covid-19 related border measures as evidence became overwhelming that border measures were largely ineffective in reducing the transmission of Covid-19.”

The government has previously said it is working on contingency plans to deal with any new strains of the virus in future.

These are expected to be revealed before the holidays in April.