Transport secretary Grant Shapps is announcing which countries will be on the government’s green list at 5pm today. The list is expected to be quite short initially with Gibraltar, Portugal, Malta and Israel rumoured to be classified as green.

Decisions will be based on the number of Covid-19 cases in a country and the success of vaccine rollouts. At the moment, the UK has fewer cases and a higher rate of vaccinations than many popular destinations.

The green list announcement is expected to prompt a surge in holiday bookings, with international travel due to be allowed from 17 May.

The government announced last month that countries will be placed into different colour bands through a new ‘traffic light’ system for international travel.

Under the traffic light system, countries will be placed in one of three colour categories: red, amber and green.

Green is the safest category, and will mean that travellers don’t need to self-isolate on returning to England. But they will still be required to carry out Covid tests before heading off on the trip and after arriving at their destination.

Travellers to ‘amber’ countries will need to take a private Covid test in their holiday destination, before returning to England. They will also need to fill in a passenger locator form online before leaving their destination, and self-isolate at home for 10 days when they arrive back in England.

They will also need to take a private PCR test on or before day two of their arrival in England and again on day eight.

Travellers arriving from ‘red list’ countries will need to stay in hotel quarantine for 10 days when they arrive in England.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different rules for international travel.