The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus, which was set up to examine the UK government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, said a green pass should be implemented across all four UK nations but it should not be used as “alternative” to requiring negative Covid tests.

“The APPG believes that current measures put in place at UK entry points by the UK government are not sufficient to address the threat of importation of new variants posed by international travel,” said the group after hearing evidence from experts.

The group goes on to recommend that a green pass should “require and display proof of a recent negative PCR test for Covid-19 in order to travel to the UK”.

It also said that while the green pass should contain a person’s vaccination status, this should not be “an alternative to proof of a recent negative PCR test to travel to the UK until a high level of vaccination is attained globally”.

The APPG added that vaccines and a Covid green pass were not a “silver bullet” to end the Covid crisis, so any health pass “should be considered in line with other strategies to reduce exposure risk”.